Banksy
"Grim Reaper" , 2003/2004
Aerosol spray paint on very thin cardboard.
63 x 80 cm - please note that this stencil is app. 3 times larger than the one used for the placards.
Copyright The Artist
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Banksy Grin (Grim) Reaper. 2003. 63 x 80 cm. This astounding artwork is the remnants of what was a Banksy Grin Reaper placard that would have most likely been nailed...
Banksy Grin (Grim) Reaper. 2003. 63 x 80 cm.
This astounding artwork is the remnants of what was a Banksy Grin Reaper placard that would have most likely been nailed to a wooden batten and probably used in an anti war demonstration in 2003. Same large size as seen in photo 3 with front singer 3D From Massive Attack demonstrating in front of Big Ben in 2003 holding a similar but much smaller placard. 3D is often suggested by the popular press as being Banksy (but he is not). According to the former owner this was glued to a wall in a London clud and at some point removed.
The placards you see on mostly american auctions are fakes made with inspiration from Banksy Lithographs. So they get the size wrong and there are other details to look out for. This stencil is app. 3 tmes larger than the small ones used for placards.
Same size as the one seen in "You Are An Acceptable Level of Threat.." See photo.
Provenance: Private collection UK.
Banksy’s Grin Reaper is one of the earliest known street art themes from the artist. It appeared in London’s Old street neighborhood where Banksy first tagged with the DryBreadZ Crew. Sadly, most of the examples of this piece were covered in London’s 2007 anti-graffiti sweep, but Banksy reproduced the popular “Smiley Grim Reaper Death On A Clock” image in an iconic 2005 limited edition screen print with 300 signed pieces.
Banksy’s Grin Reaper sits hunched over the face of the London Tower clock with his symbolic scythe in hand and his bare, skeleton feet swinging over the clock’s hands. The clock’s hands are at 5 minutes from midnight. Although the clock and Reaper are printed only in black and white on a gray background, the black cloak of the reaper is printed in an extremely painterly manner that makes the print look like a hand-drawn artwork.
The strangest part of the image is the face of the Grin Reaper, appropriately a pun on the classic “Grim Reaper” because the visage is a flat yellow “Smiley” icon. The bright, simply-drawn Smiley presents such a childlike design of contentment that it is ripe for subversion, having been associated with both the acceptance and vilification of 1960s/1970s peace ideals and 1980s/1990s acid house culture (not to mention hundreds of other positive and negative pop culture appropriations). Here the symbolism is clearly negative, signaling the placid, unbiased face of death as it waits for the hour to strike upon its unpreventable killing job. Grin Reaper is a haunting image that is at once friendly and sinister (Text from Hexagon).
This astounding artwork is the remnants of what was a Banksy Grin Reaper placard that would have most likely been nailed to a wooden batten and probably used in an anti war demonstration in 2003. Same large size as seen in photo 3 with front singer 3D From Massive Attack demonstrating in front of Big Ben in 2003 holding a similar but much smaller placard. 3D is often suggested by the popular press as being Banksy (but he is not). According to the former owner this was glued to a wall in a London clud and at some point removed.
The placards you see on mostly american auctions are fakes made with inspiration from Banksy Lithographs. So they get the size wrong and there are other details to look out for. This stencil is app. 3 tmes larger than the small ones used for placards.
Same size as the one seen in "You Are An Acceptable Level of Threat.." See photo.
Provenance: Private collection UK.
Banksy’s Grin Reaper is one of the earliest known street art themes from the artist. It appeared in London’s Old street neighborhood where Banksy first tagged with the DryBreadZ Crew. Sadly, most of the examples of this piece were covered in London’s 2007 anti-graffiti sweep, but Banksy reproduced the popular “Smiley Grim Reaper Death On A Clock” image in an iconic 2005 limited edition screen print with 300 signed pieces.
Banksy’s Grin Reaper sits hunched over the face of the London Tower clock with his symbolic scythe in hand and his bare, skeleton feet swinging over the clock’s hands. The clock’s hands are at 5 minutes from midnight. Although the clock and Reaper are printed only in black and white on a gray background, the black cloak of the reaper is printed in an extremely painterly manner that makes the print look like a hand-drawn artwork.
The strangest part of the image is the face of the Grin Reaper, appropriately a pun on the classic “Grim Reaper” because the visage is a flat yellow “Smiley” icon. The bright, simply-drawn Smiley presents such a childlike design of contentment that it is ripe for subversion, having been associated with both the acceptance and vilification of 1960s/1970s peace ideals and 1980s/1990s acid house culture (not to mention hundreds of other positive and negative pop culture appropriations). Here the symbolism is clearly negative, signaling the placid, unbiased face of death as it waits for the hour to strike upon its unpreventable killing job. Grin Reaper is a haunting image that is at once friendly and sinister (Text from Hexagon).
Provenance
Private collection, UK
Dean Bull, UK.