To tell the story we must rewind the clock back to the early hours of September the 17th, 2017 when Banksy under the guise of darkness visited the Barbican and created the brilliant homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat. Timing the creation of his work to the opening of Basquiat: Boom for Real at the Barbican which was the first major exhibition of Basquiat int the UK since his death in 1988. Inspired by the street mural, the studio version “Boy and Dog in Stop and Search '' executed on panel in 2018, features two figures from Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 painting, Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, being searched by members of London’s Metropolitan Police. Banksy brilliantly captures the shamanistic looseness of Basquiat’s enduring style and blends with his signature black-and-white stencil technique.
Whilst being firmly rooted visually in Basquiat’s “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump” Banksy reworks both the imagery and title of his version. Basuqiat’s original works creates a sweltering summer scene with the boy and dog melting around an open fire hydrant that spirts forth what looks like fire - a hellish interpretation of downtown New York in the 1980’s perhaps? One can imagine the scene that we may have witnessed in film with an open fire hydrant spraying a geyser of water into the air as child dance and play underneath the eruption.
Basquiat captures the scene in a vibrant melange of colours reminiscent of African and Caribbean colours - a nod to his father who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and his mother who was born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents. Basuait’s works often sought to understand and narrate the story of marginalised individuals from the black, immigrant and poor communities and this work is no exception. Indeed his powerful piece is almost the antithesis of a water scene with intense red and yellow and a frantic sense of fire and destruction.
Here too, in Banksy’s ode to the work, we see Banksy attempting to shine the light on the experience of predominantly black British young men who would be more likely to be searched by the MET police than other ethnicities. Banksy carefully adapts Basquiat’s work to the presence of his stencilled Metropolitan Police - removing Basquiat’s colourful Pan-African background and leaving only a thin grey-scaled outline around the figures. The male figure’s hands, raised perhaps in a playful gesture in Basquiat’s original, become a clear “hands up” gesture in the presence of the police. Banksy shows the tense encounter between authority and minority, power and powerlessness perfectly.
“Portrait of Basquiat being welcomed by the Metropolitan Police - an (unofficial) collaboration with the new Basquiat show.” —Banksy.
By stencilling police officers to intervene in Basquiat’s freedom of expression, Banksy reminds the viewer that, in the US and UK alike, Black people are disproportionately frisked by the police; they are subject to violent or threatening treatment by the police, and incarcerated at higher rates than any other racial or ethnic group.xi The universality of this injustice—the understanding that, in our multicultural, 21st century society, the mistreatment of any one group is an indictment of us all—allows Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search to transcend its initial setting at the Barbican.
Banksy presented the work on his instagram alongside another Basquiat inspired piece “Banksquiat” which was subsequently released as print edition of 300 in a grey and a black colourway.
Prior to the auction, Director Acoris Andipa said, "The estimate is quite aggressively priced for these times, I'm expecting it to close near the lower estimate on the hammer... but let's see" Following an all-in sale of $9,724,500 USD the result speaks for itself. The work, a powerful and intelligent piece that shows the intelligence and wit of Banksy and channels the spirit of a street and social icon is a staggering piece and bravo on the result.”
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