Unmasking Banksy became a futile game

Last week’s “big Banksy reveal” would have been a very boring plot for Scooby Doo. The hugely popular artist has kept his true identity more or less a secret for more than three decades; His followers had speculated that the man behind the favorite works of street art Girl with balloon y Policemen kissing It could be anyone from Massive Attack musician Robert Del Naja to Art Attack host Neil Buchanan.

His signature style is as recognizable as any in contemporary art: bold stencil paintings and terse political messages, as is his way of organizing exhibitions.

Many homeowners wake up thinking, “Oh no, my wall has been vandalized!”, only to realize that their wall has become the canvas for a valuable work of art. However, the man himself has always been an enigma. This week, Reuters claimed to have definitively identified the enigmatic artist – through details from a historic police report – as the Bristol man, formerly known as Robin Gunningham (but who is said to have legally changed his name to David Jones to preserve his anonymity).

As surprises go, this one is somewhat predictable. Jones/Gunningham is a name that has been tossed around several times over the years. In 2008 by Mail on Sunday and in 2016 by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, who claimed to have proven the artist’s identity through geolocation analysis. Many details of Jones/Gunningham’s life remain unknown: The Telegraph reports that he is “most likely” the owner of the multi-million dollar company NTS Services Limited (formerly Nothing To See Limited), who may currently reside in the United States and who lived for a time with a female partner not long ago.

Gunningham attended a private school throughout his childhood, a vocational irony that did not go unnoticed by the press in 2007. But among Banksy fans, there has always been a general attitude of deliberate indifference, preserving anonymity long after apparently credible reports about Banksy’s true identity emerged. It is very similar to the scene of Spider-Man 2when Peter Parker takes off his mask and a train full of grateful civilians decide to forget his face.

“Vital social interests”

Banksy’s lawyer told Reuters that the artist “does not accept that many of the details in his query are correct” and reiterated his reasons for keeping his identity private. Part of this is due to security: it claims that Banksy has been the subject of “obsessive, threatening and extremist behaviour” in the past. But there are also broader and ideological reasons. “Working anonymously or under a pseudonym serves vital social interests,” he said. “It protects freedom of expression by allowing creators to speak truth to power without fear of retaliation, censorship or persecution, especially when addressing sensitive topics such as politics, religion or social justice.”

Perhaps the biggest incentive for Banksy to remain anonymous is something implicit: ultimately, more than anything, it may be a question of image. The mystery surrounding Banksy’s identity has been one of the most scrutinized aspects of his work, and the idea that he is really just some guy – a former private school student, no less – will dispel much of his hard-earned mysticism. However, it is also true that many of the incentives Banksy had to remain anonymous have faded. You no longer run the real risk of being prosecuted for vandalism. His works, some of which have sold at auction for millions, have been well received by the very system he seeks to criticize (although some consider them trivial and simplistic).

What’s more, for someone so concerned with anonymity, Banksy has been, in some ways, hypervisible. If before he could appear and paint graffiti on any corner, now his works (increasingly ambitious) require an almost military stealth for their execution. His works have been exhibited in galleries. He has directed an Oscar-nominated documentary (Exit Through the Gift Shop2010 ). He has his own Instagram page, where he shares photos of his art and occasionally videos of the creation process.

In 2015, he opened his own satirical theme park, known as Dismalandan extensive project near a Somerset beach. He has often displayed his work at Glastonbury: the graffitied bulletproof vest that Stormzy wore or the inflatable migrant boat that bounced around the audience during Idles’ performance. These are not the actions of a sneaky graffiti artist, but rather the ostentatious performances of an artist in the public eye.

Banksy may be the most famous anonymous artist in the world, but he’s not the only one. Elena Ferrante, the successful Italian author of The lost daughter y My wonderful friendhas never revealed his real name. Emerging drill rapper EsDeeKid has kept his identity hidden with a balaclava, sparking speculation (since debunked) that he was actually the actor from Dune Timothée Chalamet. Other artists, such as Daft Punk and Orville Peck, have chosen to keep their faces hidden behind masks, even though their real names are in the public domain.

The question is whether the public and the media have a duty to respect an artist’s wish for anonymity. To some extent, there is a significant difference between privacy – a right we all have – and anonymity. Exposing oneself to the world through art, whether through live performances or graffiti on buildings, is in itself an act of revelation, and the more famous Banksy became, the more inevitable it became that his veil of discretion would fall away.

From an academic perspective, it is useful to analyze Banksy’s work in light of his personality. While there are those who adhere to Roland Barthes’ theory of the “death of the author” – which posits that the intention and biography of the author should be ignored in artistic criticism – art, in general, has always been interpreted and understood through the context of its creator. And when an artist is as ubiquitous as Banksy, this context is actively sought out, whether you like it or not. Knowing who Banksy is – or who he is supposed to be – does not diminish the power of his art, but rather enriches it, giving it new meanings and contradictions.

This new revelation won’t change much. It’s hard to imagine Banksy suddenly adopting the celebrity lifestyle, attending movie premieres and participating in the podcast Off Menu. There is something romantic about her fidelity to the pseudonym and many of her fans will continue to admire her. The truth is that no real man could live up to the outsized myth of Banksy. Not even Neil Buchanan.