Page 11 - Year 8

Formal Elements and Cultural Art Art and Design: 1 of 3 Formal Elements and Cultural Art Art and Design: 2 of 3

Pop Art Who is Banksy? Banksy the artist has turned street art from an outsider art

into the cultural mainstream – a concept that is nowadays
Pop Art is an art movement that began in the mid-1950s in the America and the UK. Inspired by called the ‘Banksy effect’. It is due to Banksy that today there

consumerist culture (comic books, Hollywood films, and advertising), Pop artists used the look and style is an increased interest in street art and that graffiti is taken
seriously as an art form. Banksy carries out all their work
of 'Popular', culture to make their art. secretly and has managed to maintain anonymity over the
KEY WORDS years, although speculation as to who they are keep the

Colour mystery alive. We can only speculate about their techniques,
Popular just as one can speculate about their personality. Banksy is

Low cost believed to have started as a regular graffiti sprayer. In
their book Wall and Piece the artist explains that in the past
Transient they always had the problem of either being caught by the
Fun police or not being able to complete their work. So, they had

to think of a new technique. They devised intricate stencils to

work faster and to avoid overlapping of the colour. One of
Banksy’s most famous works is the Girl with Balloon 2002. It
depicts a young girl letting go of a red heart-shaped balloon.

The image was voted Britain’s most popular image in 2017. A
version of this later made history at an auction in 2018. The
buyers and audience were shocked when the piece started
Richard Hamilton (1922- to self-destruct once it had been sold. It began to disappear
2011) was a UK artist whose in a shredder that was hidden in the frame. It was the

work is synonymous to the moment when ‘Girl with Balloon’ turned into 'Love is in the
Bin' Even though the painting was almost destroyed, a
Pop art movement. hammer price of £1.1million was reached. Before its

Andy Warhol (1928- 1987) was an American artist who was one destruction, the painting was estimated at around
£100,000.00. It was later resold in 2021 for £18.5million. The
of the main pioneers of the Pop Art Movement. irony is that Bansky was hoping that by shredding this work it
would devalue it- unfortunately for them, quite the opposite

happened!