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Lot Essay
‘Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’——Banksy
A contemporary emblem of innocence and hope, Girl with Balloon is one of the limited editions uniquely rendered using a hand-cut stencil by the famed British graffiti artist Banksy. It was created in 2003, a year after the Girl with Balloon—his most legendary and lauded image to date—made its first appearance as a graffiti mural outside Shoreditch shop and later at Southbank with an epitaph ‘There is Always Hope’. Despite its universal resonance, the image depicted in the present work—a girl stenciled in black reaching out towards a red, heart-shaped balloon dangling from a sting—is not without ambiguity. Is the girl reaching out for something she has lost, or has she released a message of love into the world? Such ambivalence is what made Banksy’s works agitating yet powerful, as with all of Banksy’s works, their ultimate meanings always stay with the spectator.
Since the 1990s, Banksy has been using graffiti to convey profound societal commentary and critique. Beginning in Bristol, the anonymous artist relocated to London at the turn of the 2000s, and his characteristic stencilled pictures have since become a distinguishing feature of the urban landscape. Over the years, his work has carried him to many places, from Gaza to Glastonbury, Los Angeles to the Louvre. His pieces, which appear unexpectedly on the street, have tackled a wide range of social, cultural, and political themes, most recently Brexit, climate change, migration, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Banksy's approach is driven by the notion that art should belong to the people and, by voicing their concerns, has the potential to change the world for the better. Being named Britain’s favourite artwork of all time in 2017, Girl with Balloon has been a steady presence in this endeavour for almost 20 years.
Girl with Balloon not only stands as the purest expression of Banksy’s visual genius as an instantly recognisable and timelessly arresting image, but it has also proved to be an enduring icon of transcendent, multivalent meaning. In 2005, Banksy produced another variant of the motif on the West Bank barrier wall, this time with a bunch of balloons lifting the girl into the sky. In 2014, a version featuring a child with a headscarf was projected onto Nelson’s Column and other global landmarks in support of crisis victims in Syria. In 2018, the fame of Girl with Balloon rose to a new height with an unexpected intervention by the artist during a live auction where the work with the same title was shredded soon after it was sold. As the first artwork in history to have been 're-created' during a live auction, the controversial work was renamed Love is in the Bin (2018) by the artist’s studio Pest Control soon after. In 2021, it was renamed the second time as Girl without Balloon (2021) when it was re-offered at the auction. (A. Shaw, 'Banksy’s shredded Girl with Balloon renamed and redated—again', The Art Newspaper, 23 Jan 2024) A motif that perhaps best defines the essence of Banksy's art with two simple visual elements, Girl with Balloon is a time-tested image that will continue to evolve and touch the hearts of millions.
A contemporary emblem of innocence and hope, Girl with Balloon is one of the limited editions uniquely rendered using a hand-cut stencil by the famed British graffiti artist Banksy. It was created in 2003, a year after the Girl with Balloon—his most legendary and lauded image to date—made its first appearance as a graffiti mural outside Shoreditch shop and later at Southbank with an epitaph ‘There is Always Hope’. Despite its universal resonance, the image depicted in the present work—a girl stenciled in black reaching out towards a red, heart-shaped balloon dangling from a sting—is not without ambiguity. Is the girl reaching out for something she has lost, or has she released a message of love into the world? Such ambivalence is what made Banksy’s works agitating yet powerful, as with all of Banksy’s works, their ultimate meanings always stay with the spectator.
Since the 1990s, Banksy has been using graffiti to convey profound societal commentary and critique. Beginning in Bristol, the anonymous artist relocated to London at the turn of the 2000s, and his characteristic stencilled pictures have since become a distinguishing feature of the urban landscape. Over the years, his work has carried him to many places, from Gaza to Glastonbury, Los Angeles to the Louvre. His pieces, which appear unexpectedly on the street, have tackled a wide range of social, cultural, and political themes, most recently Brexit, climate change, migration, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Banksy's approach is driven by the notion that art should belong to the people and, by voicing their concerns, has the potential to change the world for the better. Being named Britain’s favourite artwork of all time in 2017, Girl with Balloon has been a steady presence in this endeavour for almost 20 years.
Girl with Balloon not only stands as the purest expression of Banksy’s visual genius as an instantly recognisable and timelessly arresting image, but it has also proved to be an enduring icon of transcendent, multivalent meaning. In 2005, Banksy produced another variant of the motif on the West Bank barrier wall, this time with a bunch of balloons lifting the girl into the sky. In 2014, a version featuring a child with a headscarf was projected onto Nelson’s Column and other global landmarks in support of crisis victims in Syria. In 2018, the fame of Girl with Balloon rose to a new height with an unexpected intervention by the artist during a live auction where the work with the same title was shredded soon after it was sold. As the first artwork in history to have been 're-created' during a live auction, the controversial work was renamed Love is in the Bin (2018) by the artist’s studio Pest Control soon after. In 2021, it was renamed the second time as Girl without Balloon (2021) when it was re-offered at the auction. (A. Shaw, 'Banksy’s shredded Girl with Balloon renamed and redated—again', The Art Newspaper, 23 Jan 2024) A motif that perhaps best defines the essence of Banksy's art with two simple visual elements, Girl with Balloon is a time-tested image that will continue to evolve and touch the hearts of millions.