Banksy’s Cut And Run By Gordon A Massie

On the 15^th June 2023 the Herald newspaper in Glasgow published their exclusive announcement that Banksy’s Cut and Run show would run for ten weeks at Glasgow’s Gallry of Modern Art (GoMA).[i] In a remarkable turn of events, Banksy, the elusive street artist, e was poised to unveil his first solo exhibition in fourteen years. Once more, Banksy has taken the art world by surprise. The show’s choice of location, timing and content combined to deliver the unexcepted from an artist renowned for outsmarting the art establishment and authorities over the course of his 25 years career.

In true Banksy fashion, a mere three days before the exhibition was scheduled to open its doors there was no build up or fanfare. Instead, he chose to announce it by means of an unconventional route, unveiling it through a local paper and giving them the opportunity to benefit from the story before it was consumed by the global press. Notably, the exhibit featured an array of stencils that Banksy used for many works, including ones that police forces around the world might still consider interesting. He humorously remarked, ‘I’ve kept these stencils hidden away for years; mindful they could be used as evidence in a charge of criminal damage. But that moment seems to have passed, so now I’m exhibiting them in a gallery as works of art. I’m not sure which is the greater crime.’

While the art world pondered the reasons behind Banksy’s choice of Glasgow and GoMA, his last solo having been in his hometown of Bristol, it was evidently clear to the enigmatic artist. The Duke of Wellington statue, a fixture since 1844 outside GoMA, has become an iconic piece of urban street art. It owes its fame to the revolutionary humour of the people of Glasgow, who, for the last forty years, have been placing a traffic cone on the Duke’s head. In a sign welcoming guests to his new exhibit, Banksy said the statue is his ‘favourite work of art in the UK’ because of the cone. ‘Despite the best efforts of the council and the police, every time one is removed another takes its place.’ The cone on the Duke’s head has been a constant in many Glaswegian lives.[ii]

Cut and Run was a great success with over 180,000 visitors, breaking all previous records at GoMA.[iii] As is often the case with Banksy’s interventions, ephemera associated with the exhibition is now fetching a premium in the collector’s market. Notably, the original Herald newspaper announcement and the souvenir edition have seen a substantial surge in demand. You can buy the souvenir edition at ten times the cover price and the last original announcement edition I saw offered for sale was at a multiple of one hundred and fifty of the cover price. At his Bristol solo he had produced stickers and given them to a local Oxfam outlet to sell and raise money for the charity.[iv] The sale of these stickers will have raised significant amounts for Oxfam and a set that cost around GBP£5 is now selling for GBP£1,500. When trying to attract buyers to Pictures on Walls, a collective gallery spearheaded by Banksy in reaction to the closed shop of the art world, he produced fake GBP£10 notes with Princess Diana’s face on it, Di-Faced Tenners.[v] They were handed to passers-by, thrown from upstairs windows onto passing crowds and sold at the till. Many will have been discarded by recipients as unwanted leaflets and clutter however one of these notes has now been acceded into the British Museum collection and they are highly collectible and valuable.[vi]

A buying frenzy grew in the 2000’s as the Banksy phenomena erupted. As one of the protagonists stated recently in an interview, ‘when one hundred becomes one million the rules and behaviours change’. Demand grew to such a fever pitch that collectors fought each other in queues vying for the latest print. Opportunistic flippers wasted no time, swiftly moving these works into the secondary market commanding eye watering multiples of their original prices. There were also examples of public works being carved from their original location, in some cases whole walls were removed.[vii] The buying frenzy fuelled growing concerns related to authenticity and editioning.[viii] The commercial side of the art world, the one Banksy was most cynical about, was now likely to cause serious harm to his brand and message. To address the mounting challenges, Banksy created Pest Control, an organization committed to managing Banksy’s output and ensuring the authenticity of his works. Pest Control acts as a filter and communicator between the enigmatic artist, legal authorities, and the art world at large.[ix] As the sole body authorised to authenticate Banksy works, they also have an important role for collectors. The argument is that prospective and current collectors will benefit from a Pest Control Office LTD Certificate of Authentication as those works are likely to get a better reception from auction houses and other resellers.

Banksy’s strained relationship with the commercial art world would lead to another celebrated moment which is also evoked at Cut and Run. Banksy created and framed a work, developed from his iconic mural stencils of Girl with a Balloon, which he gifted to a friend in 2006. He had built a remote receiver and shredder into the frame should the work ever come to auction. Twelve years later the work appeared at auction at Sotheby’s and sold for GBP1,042,000. Seconds after the hammer went down the mechanism was triggered, presumably by an accomplice in the room, and the shredding began. The process stalled halfway leaving a curtain of paper streams hanging from the bottom of the frame as the auction room staff hurriedly removed it from the startled room and bemused auctioneer. The winning bidder recognised the importance of this moment and completed the purchase. Banksy renamed the work Love is in the Bin. Four years later the work was sold again at Sotheby’s for £18,582,000, a record for the artist, against a £4-6 million estimate. Sotheby’s has declared this to be the singular artwork created during an auction, while numerous commentators assert that it stands as the quintessential statement piece of early 21st-century art. Banksy released footage of test runs where the work was completely destroyed, the original intent, showing that the main event had failed. As is often the case with the Banksy phenomena Love is in the Bin became an enduring part of his folklore and art history.[i] While the definitive reasons, actors, and processes behind this transformative act may forever remain shrouded in mystery, it undeniably had a profound influence on his commercial appeal.[ii] Throughout the past two decades, regardless of the art world’s opinions of Banksy, it has been compelled to welcome him with open arms due to his remarkable ability to generate substantial revenue.

There is a possibility Cut and Run will appear at other venues.[iii] Market speculation is rife though about Banksy’s next steps. Some wonder if Cut and Run was his farewell, prompting a shift toward focusing on his long-term and impactful human rights activities. I like to think that he will continue with shock interactions that convey powerful messages while also benefiting genuine collectors.[iv] Many will continue to speculate as to who the anonymous Banksy is. I wonder, if his identity were to be exposed, would it jeopardize the output of an artist who has cultivated the freedom to express his unfiltered thoughts? Without the cloak of invisibility would he prove to be of the same enigmatic interest? While the secrecy of his identity, heavily protected by the NDA’s required of anybody close to him, may have enabled some of the chaos and duplicity within his market, knowing who he is may inhibit future interventions. Whatever he chooses to do next I am willing to wager that Banksy will once again astound and astonish us with his next move.

Useful Resources

Banksy official web site. https://www.banksy.co.uk/out.html

Pest Control official web site. https://pestcontroloffice.com/

Exit Through The Gift Shop https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/

‘The Banksy Story’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001nwhs

[1] https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23590216.banksy-unveils-glasgow-show-spanning-25-years-iconic-works/

[1] https://www.insider.com/why-banksy-chose-glasgow-first-solo-exhibition-cone-statue-2023-6#:~:text=The%20exhibition%2C%20titled%20%22Cut%20and,much%20as%20us%20locals%20do.

[1] https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/08/28/gallery-of-modern-art-glasgow-breaks-box-office-record-banksy-exhibition

[1] I learnt of this from a docent at the museum when I asked if there was a gift shop so we could buy a momento. Gift shops are not a Banksy thing as brilliantly shown in Exit Through The Gift Shop https://youtu.be/1-l68uSoOOE?si=N5qe1Fd3YUgFjK4C

[1] https://www.picturesonwalls.com/

[1] https://banksyexplained.com/di-faced-tenners-august-2004/

[1] For detailed insight into these tumultuous days in the words of some of the protagonists I would recommend the BBC podcast ‘The Banksy Story’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001nwhs

[1] https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2007/10/01/revealed-the-ebay-banksy-print-fraud

[1] https://pestcontroloffice.com

[1] https://banksyexplained.com/love-is-in-the-bin-2018/

[1] According to Artsy, Banksy’s market gained new momentum with the number of collectors enquiring about his work surging 175% during the month of the shredding. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-banksys-love-bin-explained

[1] https://cutandrun.co.uk/

[1] I am minded of his works he sold to art lovers for US$60 having anonymously set up a market stall in New York https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diQZoRp-thU