It is to street art what Caravaggio was to the Italian Renaissance. A genius. Banksy's work flourishes on the walls of the whole world, from that which separates Israel from the West Bank to those of Paris and especially of Bristol. To evoke this planetary artist amounts to glossing over the mystery of the great pyramid of Cheops. Since its appearance in the 1990s, it has remained anonymous, despite a journey as rich in works as in political or anti-art market highlights.
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Going, going, gone ...
A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Oct 5, 2018 at 6:45 pm PDT
Where is he from ?
It was in 2003, when he produced the cover for the album Think Tank by the pop group Blur, that he gained real notoriety. In an interview with the Guardian that year, he was described as "white, 28, laid-back casual - jeans, T-shirt, silver tooth, silver chain and silver earring. It looks like a cross between Jimmy Nail (Editor's note, British singer) and Mike Skinner (Editor's note, English rapper) from the streets ”. Difficult to get a precise idea according to this description.
Until then, the young Banksy made his debut in Bristol, capital of the hip-hop and underground scene across the Channel, which will see the birth of the "trip hop" movement. In the mid-90s, he was part of a group of graffiti artists, Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DbZ). He produced his first signed works there. Its identity is thus perfectly known to a part of the figures of the musical and artistic scene of this big city of the south-west of England. On the basis of these established facts, several theories on the real identity of the stencil maestro - his favorite technique - coexist as the appearance of these new works.
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A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Jun 27, 2018 at 8:00 am PDT
The stranger on the train
According to the oldest rumor, it would be a certain Robin Banks, artist from the English city. Two witnesses affirm that he would have presented himself to them under this name in 2015. He would have offered young Ben Azarya, seated next to him in a train, a Banksy print. Quoted by the Daily Mirror, the schoolboy describes the man as "white", "quarantine" well advanced. “He was wearing scruffy clothes and he had a fluffy black hat that looked really old. He had a little jacket that did not cover his arms, and jeans with paint. He looked really wacky and had blond hair and blue eyes. At the time, Banksy's spokesperson, Jo Brooks, denied that this mysterious character was in the places and on the dates when it is claimed to have seen him.
The member of Massive Attack
Another possibility, the most "popular" with fans of the artist, is that he is one of the members of the trip-hop group Massive Attack. In 2016, British journalist Craig Williams conducted the investigation in an attempt to put a face on the pseudonym of the urban artist. According to him, the works signed by the artist have appeared several times on the places of the tours of this group from Bristol: in Melbourne in 2003, Los Angeles in 2006, San Francisco, Toronto and Boston in 2010.
In 2017, a blunder from a drum'n'bass music figure, Goldie, fueled this version. During a podcast of the series "Distraction Pieces" with the artist Scroobius Pip, he accidentally gave a name to the famous street artist. "Give me a bubble, stick it on a T-shirt with Banksy written on it, and that's it. It will sell. Without wanting to disrespect Robert. I think it was a brilliant artist who revolutionized the art world. For observers, the conclusion was simple: Banksy would therefore actually be Robert Del Naja, one of the founding members of Massive Attack!
A disturbing coincidence reinforced by the past of graffiti artist Robert Del Naja, originally from Bristol as Banksy. The applicant admitted to being a friend of the mysterious artist, but nothing more.
The target of profilers
The artist's identity is so fascinating that science has become involved. Also in 2016, scientists at Queen Mary University in London claimed to have identified it using a profiling method used by the police to confuse serial criminals! Their conclusions led them to quote the name of a certain Robin Gunningham, located several times in the cities "painted" by Banksy. He would have been born on July 28, 1973 in Yate and, like the one who once printed counterfeit bills with the effigy of Lady Diana, would have a graffiti artist's past in Bristol. He was also the roommate of artists who worked with Banksy, then moved to London in 2000, when many works by the mysterious street artist will appear in the English capital.
What if Banksy was not alone?
The painter, if it is him, also appeared in a film attributed to him, "Make the wall!" "(" Exit Through the Gift Shop ", in VO), released in 2010, where he appeared masked and his voice made up. A sort of manifesto which reconstituted his artistic journey to the four corners of the world, which would lend credence to the hypothesis of a collective. A hypothesis far from that of journalist Craig Williams or the scientific hypothesis, but which has the merit of being as credible as all the others.
"The assumption that Banksy is a single person may be very far from the truth," said Craig Williams in a 2016 article, geography of Banksy's works in support. It could be a group of people who have followed Massive Attack for years and produced the works during their tours. And perhaps at the head of this group is Robert Del Naja. It would be incredibly cool! ".