After plausibly being ID’d as Robin Gunningham earlier this week, Banksy, the popular not so anonymous street painting stenciler responds on his website:
“Please Note
I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as being “good at drawing” doesn’t sound like Banksy to me.”
And in response to this perfectly predictable piece, no it doesn’t matter if he went to a fancy prep school, and he ain’t “middle class” either, he’s rich!
Photo: (left) Robin Gunningham 1989, UK (right) Banksy 2004, Jamaica
The UK’s Daily Mail has uncovered the most compelling proof to date that street stenciler Banksy’s real identity is Robin Gunningham, but first some quick background. Last year, while writing for Complex.com, I noted how the British (and world) media had all but ignored the Banksy photo that was first published by the Evening Standard on Friday July 30th, 2004. It was part of a series of images taken at Dancehall superstar Buju Banton’s studio in Jamaica by professional button pusher Peter Dean Rickards. Evidently he had a falling out with the art prankster—it had something to do with Banksy being an egotistical prick or something—and sold one of the photos to the news outlet that ran it with the headline: “Unmasked at last.” Despite republishing some of these photos and even receiving a cease and desist on behalf of MeenaKhera PR—who claimed the rights to the images and threatened legal action—many still doubted it was him (we later learned the PR hacks paid 10,000 British pounds for those rights).
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