Banksquiat
A comment on the endless turning wheels of capitalism, Banksy pays homage to the great Jean-Michel Basquiat whilst appropriating the famous crown that the late artist used as part of his visual language. In the work, we see a ferris wheel whose carriages have been replaced by the famous crown being gazed upon by a group of individuals in which looks like a fairground setting. Not only do we see Banksy openly placing or aligning himself within the pantheon of street art greats (the black background and chalk lines a potential reference to Haring and his subway drawings) but this repurposing gives the crowns a new life. Released as part of the Gross Domestic Product pop-up that took place in Croydon, itself a satirisation of the idea of the commodification of artworks, Banksquiat sees Bristol meeting with the underground of NYC to stunning aplomb.
Choose Your Weapon
Choose Your Weapon first appeared on a wall in Bermondsey, London in 2010 before the street stencil piece was subsequently boarded over and framed in Perspex to preserve the work. Shortly after, Banksy’s publishers, Pictures on Walls produced a limited run of prints of the mural which, infamously, turned to carnage as collectors and fans clamoured for the pieces resulting in Banksy producing a special version, titled Choose Your Weapon (Queue Jumping Grey) the artwork is a slightly larger edition size of 58. A highly sought after work, the famous print is available in a wide range of colourways including pink, orange, white, green, gold, lemon and olive. The work shows a youth in a hoodie whose face is covered and makes one recall the slogan of then Prime Minister David Cameron “Hug a Hoodie”. Holding a stylised dog, it in itself a reference to Keith Haring’s Barking Dogs series, the figure looks disenfranchised, sunken and is a parody of the media hysteria surrounding youth who wore hoods at the time. Likewise, the layered print also subverts the notion of man’s best friend and, instead of a friendly companion, the dog itself has become a weapon. Taking arms against the system and shining a light on those who are marginalised, Choose Your Weapon is one of the few Banksy works where the artist draws from street art iconography.
Dogs are one of Haring's most famous images. It first appeared in the subway drawing series between 1980 and 1985. It Started as a mythical creature it later developed into a dog, it stands for all abuses of power, government, and oppressive regimes that demand obedience and represents authority.
Soup Can
Released as a signed version of 50 and unsigned version of 250 in a blue red and white colourway by Pictures on Walls in 2005, Banksy’s Soup Can can trace its inspiration to Andy Warhol’s famous series Campbell Soup Can. Certainly less romantic than the now mythologised Campbell’s soup brand, Banksy opts to use the fat less glamorous Tesco Value branding and logo for his work - firmly British and firmly marginalised as fare for the working classes. Taking the idea even further, Banksy, much like Warhol, released the motif in a range of different versions - in this case different colourways instead of flavours. In addition to the main blue, red and white colourway Banksy also released other colourways each consisting of an edition of 10.
Several anecdotal stories supposedly explain why Warhol chose Campbell's Soup cans as the focal point of his pop art. One reason is that he needed a new subject after he abandoned comic strips, a move taken in part due to his respect for the refined work of Roy Lichtenstein.
Muriel Latow was then an aspiring interior decorator, and owner of the Latow Art Gallery in the East 60s in Manhattan. She told Warhol that he should paint "Something you see every day and something that everybody would recognize. Something like a can of Campbell's Soup." Ted Carey, who was there at the time, said that Warhol responded by exclaiming: "Oh that sounds fabulous." A $50 check dated November 23, 1961 in the archive of the Andy Warhol Museum confirms the story.According to Carey, Warhol went to a supermarket the following day and bought a case of "all the soups", which Carey said he saw when he stopped by Warhol's apartment the next day. When the art critic G. R. Swenson asked Warhol in 1963 why he painted soup cans, the artist replied, "I used to drink it, I used to have the same lunch every day, for twenty years."
For more information on any of our Keith Haring prints for sale, Banksy original artworks for sale or to buy Banksy prints, contact Andipa via sales@andipa.com or call +44 (0)20 7589 2371.