Banksy Revealed? Artist Verifies Call in Lost BBC Interview

Who is Banksy? It is among the art world’s, possibly even popular culture’s, the majority of long-lasting secrets given that the street artist burst onto the scene in the early 2000s. However we might be one action more detailed to the artist’s real identity following the current discovery of a lost BBC interview in which Banksy appears to verify his name.

The BBC reported on Monday that it had actually discovered a 2003 interview in between the young up-and-coming street artist Banksy and the previous BBC arts reporter Nigel Wrench. The initial recording was modified for an area on BBC radio which was then utilized as part of the BBC podcast series The Banksy Story which was launched in July. However Wrench, having actually listened to the podcast series, was influenced to review the complete initial recording and found a lot more buried info about the artist that was never ever utilized.

In the found audio, Wrench talks to Banksy, who remained in his 20s at the time, ahead of the artist’s Grass War display in East London in the summer season of 2003. Banksy is asked by Wrench if his name is “Robert Banks”, and the artist responds, “It’s Robbie.”.

The identity of Banksy has actually long interested the art world, and in specific, the feverish tabloid press in the U.K. The artist seldom provides interviews, which has actually contributed to his mystique. In among his couple of early interviews, the artist spoke to the Guardian in 2003, and he was referred to as “white, 28, shabby casual– denims, Tee shirts, a silver tooth, silver chain and silver earring. He appears like a cross in between Jimmy Nail and Mike Skinner of the Streets.”

Over the last 20 years, different individuals have actually been determined as Banksy, most especially Robert Del Naja, likewise referred to as 3D and a co-founder of the extremely prominent trip-hop act Enormous Attack. The expected proof that Del Naja was Banksy consisted of that they were both from the Bristol location, and the artist likewise meddled graffiti at a young age. Jamie Hewlett, the artist and designer best understood for co-creating the band Gorillaz and the comics Tank Woman, has likewise in the previous been recommended as the real identity of Banksy.

In 2008, The Daily Mail claimed that a Bristol-based male called Robin Gunningham was Banksy. The paper talked to Gunningham’s school pals and peers to support the story. The Mail reports that Gunningham began passing the name Robin Banks, which went on to end up being Banksy. In October, The Sunday Times reported that Gunningham might be required to expose his identity due to a character assassination claim to settle whether he lags well-known murals.