Spraypaint on cardboard

58 × 37 cm. 22 7/8 x 14 5/8 in.

LITERATURE
2016, Laugh Now, Modern Contemporary Museum, Amsterdam, p. 194
EXHIBITED
9 Apr – 30 Sep 2016, Laugh Now, Modern Contemporary Museum, Amsterdam

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Europe
Private Collection, Asia

Advocating the Subversive, Long Live the Peace!
Banksy's Anti-war Protest

Girl with balloon, a notable work of the famous England-based artist Banksy, dropped through a hidden shredder installed in the frame in 2018 only moments after it was sold at the price of £1.06 million in London. The canvas was shredded from the bottom up the girl's head. The work has been the first artwork re-worked on in the history of auction. Banksy is famed for his disruptive black humour and distinctive techniques. Born in 1974, Banksy has been renowned since the late 1980s for his street art with graffiti, printing subversive epigrams combined with images of dark humour, which makes his international reputation. While he still remains anonymous, his works are collected by the British Museum and the Centre Pompidou. A solo exhibition of Banksy named Wrong War was held in the Modern Contemporary Art Museum, Amsterdam in 2017. The homonymous artwork Wrong War presented in China Guardian Spring Auction in Hong Kong is a representative in that solo exhibition.

Wrong War is crafted with spray paints and cardboard stencils, a mature technique he has been developing since the 1990s. A military aircraft on missions is followed by its two fellows in unknown space. A capitalized statement “WRONG WAR” underneath reveals the issue unreservedly. The application of black spray paints consolidates the warning undertone, while the pink bowknot is tied on the aircraft's propeller, highlighting the whole artwork and countering the killing and warfare with loveliness. Banksy thereby puts forward his anti-war statement, that war is wrong from the very beginning, so why not decorate the military aircraft with the surreal pink bowknot? Banksy firmly expresses his longing for a peaceful world by embellishing the cruelty in the reality with fairy elements.

Price estimate:
HKD: 90,000 – 150,000
USD: 11,600 – 19,400

Auction Result:
HKD: 112,100