Banksy by Alessandra Mattanza

This deeply researched and highly personal tribute is the most comprehensive and up-to-date coffee-table book available on the enigmatic and controversial graffiti artist Banksy. For the book, Alessandra Mattanza explored how Banksy continues to defy accepted wisdom about artistic success and only becomes more famous and powerful, while sticking to his anti-establishment platform and to his mission of giving a voice to the voiceless.

Accompanied by stunning full-page, full-color reproductions and photographs of works in situ - including many lost to time - photographer and street art expert Alessandra Mattanza's passionate and well-informed text traces Banksy's career path from creator of stencils with messages on London's city walls to a much sought-after advocate for human and environmental rights. She examines many of the key images that populate Banksy's work - animals, children, historical figures, balloons, cartoon characters, police officers and others.

Mattanza shows how Banksy's body of work extends beyond graffiti and stenciling and how his art has helped support his activism for a variety of causes - from calls for peace in the Middle East to conservation of the natural environment. Readers will gain a new understanding of how Banksy helped turn an illegal act of criminal damage into a high art form, and how, by ridiculing institutionalized art, he gained enormous fame precisely within those institutions.

Specifications
Title: Banksy by Alessandra Mattanza
Author: Alessandra Mattanza
Publisher: Prestel
Size: 312 x 310 x 25 mm
Size: 240 pages
Weight: 1748 grams
Language: English
Material: Hardcover
ISBN: 9783791388243

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