Whether or not the Bristolian is really the ‘Picasso of the 21st century’, this fawning documentary confirms how well he fits the social-media age
Here is a watchable, if slaveringly adulatory documentary profile of the yet-to-be-conclusively-identified artist, whose increasingly pricey work has spawned its own mini-industry of blokes with angle grinders chopping stencils off walls and doors almost before the paint is dry.
Directed by Seamus Haley and Aurélia Rouvier, this film covers most of the bases: beginning with the 2018 shredding of his Girl With Balloon painting shortly after it had sold at auction, and working back through earlier greatest hits such as the Dismaland theme park, the Walled Off hotel in Bethlehem in the West Bank, and the Mobile Lovers gift to a Bristol youth club. It also very much bends the knee, allowing statements such as “Banksy is the Picasso of the 21st century” to pass through unchallenged; others may not subscribe entirely to this point of view.
