Who is Banksy? Wild theories over identity of world-famous artist as legal row threatens to reveal his name

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His subversive murals and installations are well-known all over the world – however the true identity of the world-famous Banksy has by no means formally been confirmed.

The riddle over the elusive artist definitely provides to the curiosity in his highly-prized work, which typically seems on the edges of buildings with no warning.

Much of his work is in Bristol, together with Well Hung Lover on town’s busy Park Street and the Girl with a Pearl Earing on the harbourside, however now he has items scattered across the globe and even in war-torn Ukraine.

There have been enormous artwork exhibitions of his work, together with in London and New York, and even a theme park named Dismaland in Weston-super-Mare.

His reputation has led to copycats with artists utilizing stencils in the same vein. There is just one true Banksy however the query nonetheless stays – who is he?

What can we find out about Banksy?

We don’t have a name, formally no less than. But we all know one thing of his formative years. The story goes he was born within the city of Yate, close to Bristol, earlier than rising up within the metropolis, the place he grew to become impressed by the road artwork and music scene, together with Nineteen Nineties music pioneers like Massive Attack and Portishead.

He first attracted consideration within the Nineteen Nineties for spray-painting trains and partitions and it was then, with his artwork thought-about prison injury, that the foundations for his anonymity started.

As his status soared, his first giant stencil mural,The Mild Mild West, appeared within the Bristol’s Stokes Croft space in 1999. The image, displaying a teddy bear hurling a Molotov cocktail at three riot police, nonetheless stands as we speak. At the flip of the millennium, Banksy created items in London to additional set up himself as a world-leading grafitti artist.

Does anybody actually know who he is?

Of course, there are some folks whom Banksy could have had to establish himself to throughout his profession, working alongside fellow road artists who’ve loyally saved his secret.

There are additionally these in his residence metropolis of Bristol who will seemingly have performed in the identical soccer crew as him, with the artist showing between the purpose sticks for the Easton Cowboys. (It’s not identified if he used his nickname to name for catches of the soccer at corners and freekicks).

However, all who know him have adhered to the unwritten rule that you just don’t reveal the key behind the worldwide celeb.

Wild theories

As with any thriller, there’s been a good quantity of theories about Banksy’s identity over the years.

One of essentially the most well-known claims is that he is Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, basically dwelling a double life in plain sight. Raised in Bristol and likewise a name within the graffiti artist scene, it’s no shock Del Naja, additionally identified to as 3D, is linked.

The group even performed off the concept once they carried out at Bristol’s Downs Festival in 2016, with lighting throughout the gig displaying the phrase “We are all Banksy”, to dramatic impact.

Another well-known name typically put ahead is drum and bass legend Goldie, though the Wolverhampton-raisesd star appeared to give away Banksy’s first name as “Rob” throughout his weekly podcast in 2017 suggesting he isn’t the person behind the spray can.

Then now we have a couple of different names, much less well-known to these exterior the artwork world. in 2014, an American information web site claimed Liverpool-based Paul Horner was Banksy, and the next 12 months US-based artist Richard Preiffer was linked.

Most seemingly identity

One name linked to Banksy which refuses to go away is Robin Gunningham. First “unmasked” in a world unique in 2008, connections between the artist and the previous Bristol Cathedral School pupil have solely strengthened over time.

In 2016, scientists at Queen Mary University claimed to have “tagged” Banksy, by figuring out a sample between the places the place his graffiti artworks most continuously appeared and addresses with an in depth affiliation to Mr Gunningham.

Two years later, and Mr Gunningham’s signature appeared on two items of work supplied on the market.

Then we had the “Rob” reference to the artist by Goldie, earlier than a BBC interview from again in 2003 emerged 10 years later, showing to reveal Banksy’s identity in an interview for BBC Radio 4’s PM programme.

“Are you happy for me to use your name? I mean, The Independent has,” former BBC arts correspondent Nigel Wrench asks the artist, who replied: “Yeah.”

Official unmasking

The finest probability of Banksy’s name being revealed, it seems, is by a courtroom case.

This seems doable with two artwork collectors taking legal motion in opposition to Pest Control Ltd, the artist’s firm, after it allegedly refused to verify the authenticity of the 2003 piece Monkey Queen.

According to The Guardian, Katz and Howse paid £30,000 for the art work in 2020 and regardless of three years of alleged requests for an authentication certificates, one hasn’t apparently been issued.

Pest Control says it authentication course of is robost and “sometimes protracted”.

If the case will get to courtroom, Banksy may very well be pressured to reveal his actual name – not fairly the place he would have deliberate it, however absolutely it is solely a matter of time earlier than an enormous reveal takes place.