That winter, Banksy entered Tate Britain, placed a painting on the wall and walked into the history books. With incursions into museums and galleries, and other stunts that followed, Banksy pioneered a new type of performance art. ibid.
Palestine: In 2005 … he travelled to the Middle East to paint the West Bank barrier, a controversial wall erected by the Isreali government … The collection of paintings that resulted by met with international acclaim. ibid.
2007 Santa’s Ghetto: The plight of the Palestinians … he held the annual Santa’s ghetto in Bethlehem. ibid.
In 2017 he opened The Walled Off Hotel, a dystopian art installation that marked the 100th anniversary of British control over Palestine. ibid.
A year later Banksy returned home to stage Banksy vs Bristol Museum, his largest exhibition to date. ibid.
Marine art had never been so popular. Dan Snow, Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World III: High Tide, BBC 2019
The establishment in Britain is certainly against the arts and against education. If something doesn’t make a profit, it’s invalid, and art doesn’t make a profit in that sense. Peter Maxwell Davies
It’s 400 A.D. in what will one day become Great Britain and the Romans have just left. The population that remains is joined by other peoples arriving in increasing numbers from across the sea. And in this world a mysterious artefact is created [Spong Man, 5th century]: this is made in the period once known as the Dark Ages. But in reality it is a time of glittering art and extraordinary fusions. Art that Made Us I: Lights in the Darkness, BBC 2022
The Lindisfarne Gospels, 8th century: ‘This is a real technological accomplishment to create that range of colours.’ ibid.
It’s 1348 and a pandemic is sweeping through the British Isles … Out of the chaos comes disruptive art, survivors finding their voice questioning authority, challenging status and class. Art that Made Us II: Revolution of the Dead
The Wilton Diptych c.1396; Death and the Gallant c.1480; Great East Window, York Minster, John Thornton 1405-08. ibid.
The curtain rises on the 16th century with the country in the grip of a religious revolution … Protestants use art, language and new technology to wage a battle for power in the aisles. Art that Made Us III: Queens, Feuds & Faith
Reformers around Elizabeth want England not just to repent but to rebrand with more than words. With an image. A unique body of artwork creates a logo for defiant Protestant England. A figure of the Queen herself depicted by court painters over decades, facing down the Catholic continent and internal treachery and intrigue. ibid.
It’s 1603: the Elizabethan age gives way to an era of unrest and revolution. A political and religious splintering under the Stuart kings as culture war becomes real war. The King’s Cavaliers vs Parliamentary Roundheads. From the ashes of war comes a creative flourishing and the rise of a more questioning culture. Art that Made Us IV: To Kill a King
Painting in England with a level of skill no native artist can touch, Anthony van Dyke creates extraordinary portraits of the rich and famous. ibid.
Welcome to the 18th century: an explosion of creativity in a country obsessed with the chic of the new and rich enough from trade and conquest to pay for it. Art that Made Us V: Consumers and Conquest
An age of exploitation stirs a growing social conscience. ibid.
A British design classic: the grand country house. ibid.
It’s the 19th century. Industry is transforming the British Isles. A divide opens up between city and country. It’s the ultimate test of the artist. How to respond to the upheaval in lives and the landscape. How to portray poverty and squalor. Art that Made Us VI: Rise of the Cities
A British pioneer who captured the changing skies of his own time with fresh eyes. Arguably the first environmental artist: J M W Turner. ibid.
In the first half of the twentieth century the United Kingdom was at a state of war. And art was at war too. War with the old imperial order. War with convention. With the very idea of what it means to be human. This is the story of artists grappling with the destruction. Art that Made Us VII: Wars and Peace
For the socially committed Hepworth, Contrapuntal Forms’s final home [Harlow] is the ideal one. ibid.
The United Kingdom, the 1950s: a generation of arts who recorded the shock of global war gives way to an explosion of new voices from across the British Isles, reinventing the arts and stitching together a richer more diverse culture. Art that Made Us VIII
Young artists rebel against the establishment, kicking against the confines of class, sex, nation and race. ibid.
What united the Secessionists was the wish to educate the public. What they wanted was to elevate taste, elegance ... They tried to confront Austrian art. Stephan Koja, 19th Century Art – Belvedere Museum
Koloman Moser – and he was the multi-talent of the Secession. He was a designer of furniture, he was one of the greatest graphic designers of the time ... And he was a painter. ibid.
It’s a hundred years since the word surreal was first used, and now you hear it everywhere. For many people surreal just means bizarre. If you think of surrealist art at all, you’ll maybe think of those lonely landscapes littered with melting clocks, floating businessmen in bowler hats, a woman who looks like a violin, a lobster where a telephone should be, but surrealism didn’t start out like that. How to be a Surrealist with Philippa Perry, BBC 2022
I’m going to take you back to the beginnings of the surrealist movement and trace how their interest in the unconscious mind sparked an explosion of revolutionary ideas that transformed art and cinema and the world around us. ibid.
[Andre] Breton had his reasons for wanting to rearrange world order. Breton had been a medical student in the Fire World War … He set out his ideas in a sort of handbook, the Surrealist Manifesto. ibid.
Boston, Massachusetts, 18 March 1990: A baffling heist in which priceless paintings vanish into thin air … The largest property theft in American history, a museum heist in which priceless pieces of art were taken and to this day are still missing. The UnXplained with William Shatner s2e8: Outrageous Robberies, History 2022
I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art. Helena Bonham Carter
This man is described by some as one of the most important figures in counter-culture art. But the chances are you’ve never heard of him. Most of his work no longer exists. And was painted illegally in the first place. King Robbo is a wanted man and protects his identify for fear of arrest. Graffiti Wars, Channel 4 2011
He is one of the pioneers of graffiti writing. A movement that champions freedom of expression, and can be seen on street corners all over the world. ibid.
This is Banksy: the enigmatic street artist who also came from graffiti but has sold a popular and commercially successful version back to the world. ibid.
The different treatment of Banksy and Robby is symptomatic of a wider battle between street art and graffiti. ibid.
The most divisive art feud since Matisse and Picasso. ibid.
For the teenage Robbo from a tough London council estate bombing the trains was a way to raise a big middle finger to authority, as well as a opportunity to get his art seen by as many people as possible. An art gallery on wheels. ibid.
Robbo’s talent and ingenuity made him the undisputed graffiti king in London in the 80s and early 90s. ibid.
All of his work gradually vanished from the walls and trains of London except for this piece – painted in 1985 underneath the British Transport Police Headquarters ... The oldest piece of graffiti in London. ibid.
One night he met a young artist from Bristol called Banksy ... Banksy doesn’t play by graffiti’s rules and never did ... Banksy attacked Robbo’s final piece of work and turned the famous canal-side piece into this ... Banksy’s act was considered sacrilegious by many in the graffiti world. And it brought King Robbo out of retirement. ibid.
Graffiti writing has a strict code of conduct. ibid.
Robbo called into question Banksy’s artistic integrity. ibid.
Shoreditch: this is mecca for the world’s best street art and home to the galleries that bring it to a wider audience. ibid.
This gallery helped to establish Banksy as a selling artist. The fact that Robbo is now exhibiting here has not gone down well with the stenciller’s hardcore supporters. ibid.
But Robbo would never get his chance to retaliate against Banksy. Just days after this filming took place he was found unconscious in the street with life-threatening head injuries. And he’s been in a coma ever since. ibid.