![]() The image is also redolent of seminal artistic renderings of perfectly lit fields - like Claude Monet’s Effect of Spring, Giverny from 1890- but also of filmic interpretations of carefree, elated moments filled with music and synaesthetic beauties, namely Robert Wise’s 1965 The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews. The chromatic spread appears embellished, almost false - like those one would find in old pieces of advertising, concealing subliminal messages of freedom, insouciance and happiness. Piercing through Banksy’s trademark use of greyscale (which, in public installations frequently incorporates the white or grey hue of the wall itself), the meadow projected onto the surface of the young boy’s mask in the present work features the most vibrant of blues, greens, and yellows, rendering an idealised image of sky and land. ![]() ![]() Otto Dix, Stormtroops advancing under gas, 1924, etching and aquatint, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, United Kingdom. In Gas Mask Boy, the artists aims his critique at the policing of graffiti art on an elementary level, but also at the environmental damage imposed upon younger generations, which might lead them to eventually lose sight of flowering meadows and be forced into masks for sanitary protection. Banksy channels all these ideas in his compositions, melding them into a single, easily understandable image that is immediately striking upon first encounter. In recent culture, the object has been used by state law enforcers during demonstrations, and thus come to embody notions of unrest, rioting, but also government control and oppression. First appearing during the Great War, the respirator mask symbolised the threat of both chemical and biological warfare, the destruction of the environment and the extreme lengths humanity will go to when waging war. Evidently a tool to disguise his likeness (Banksy has, to this day, still not been visually identified), the mask furthermore contains fringe associations that transform it into a message of subversion in itself. 'Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.' -BanksyParticularly poignant in the present work, the gas mask has been a recurring symbol in Banksy’s iconography. Beside the young protagonist is the spray painted outline of a flower - perhaps the boy’s attempt at painting a meadow, as reflected on his mask. His painting Gas Mask Boy, portraying a crouched figure whose respirator mask reflects the ethereal vision of a blooming field, contains some of the conceptual paradoxes the artist has become most known and recognised for, including the dichotomy between air toxicity and landscape purity, a subject of resounding relevance in today’s escalating climate crisis. Spray paint and cardboard stencils allowed the artist to achieve a meticulous level of detail with speed, keeping him safely beyond the reach of law enforcement. Inspired by the thriving street art scene in his home city of Bristol, Banksy’s works started appearing on trains and city streets as early as 1993. The anonymous street artist, painter, and social activist Banksy has shaken up the art world with his distinctive oeuvre characterised by dark humour, satire and political commentary. 'If you want to say something and have people listen then you have to wear a mask.' -Banksy
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