As unmaskings go, last week’s big Banksy reveal would have made for a pretty drab Scooby Doo plotline. The phenomenally popular artist has kept his real identity kinda-sorta under wraps for more than three decades; fans had varyingly speculated that the man behind street-art favourites “Girl with Balloon” and “Kissing Coppers” could be anyone from Massive Attack musician Robert Del Naja to Art Attack host Neil Buchanan.
His trademark style is as recognisable as any in contemporary art – bold stencil paintings, with pithy political meanings – as is his MO for exhibition. Many is the property owner who’s woken up thinking “oh crumbs, my wall’s been defaced”, only to realise that their wall has become the canvas for some very valuable art. Yet the man himself has always been opaque. This week, Reuters claimed to have definitively identified the enigmatic artist – via details from a historical police report – as the Bristolian man formerly known as Robin Gunningham (but who is claimed to have legally changed his name to David Jones, in a bid to preserve his anonymity).
