BANKSY (b. 1974)
3D Rat, 2010
Spray paint and emulsion on board with artist’s frame
40 x 30.2 cm (15-3/4 x 11-7/8 inches)
Ed. 1/6
Signed lower right: BAnKSY
Signed and numbered on the reverse: BAnKSY 1/6
Provenance
Vroom & Varossieau, Zaandam, Netherlands;
Tanya Baxter Contemporary, London, UK;
Private collection, Bedford, New York, acquired from above.
Auction History
Heritage Auctions: 13 May 2025
Estimated: USD 200,000 – 300,000
Price realized: USD 206,250
Banksy (b. 1974). 3D Rat, 2010. Spray paint and emulsion on board | Lot #77017 | Heritage Auctions
Banksy, the enigmatic and anonymous graffiti artist, has attained a near-mythical status in both contemporary art and popular culture. His career began in the early 1990s on the streets of Bristol, England, where his signature stenciled aesthetic-sharp, satirical, and politically charged-first emerged. What began as local guerrilla graffiti soon evolved into a global phenomenon, with his works appearing in cities such as London, Los Angeles, and New York. Banksy’s pieces blur the line between vandalism and high art, prompting ongoing debate about authorship, authenticity, and the institutionalization of subversive expression. Ironically, although his works frequently critique capitalism, consumerism, and the art market itself, they now appear regularly at major auctions, commanding millions and drawing crowds of collectors and tourists alike.
Among Banksy’s most enduring and symbolically rich motifs is the rat. Rats have appeared throughout his oeuvre as metaphors for resilience, rebellion, and the experiences of marginalized populations. Some speculate that the rat also serves as an homage to Blek Le Rat, the Parisian street artist often credited with pioneering the stencil technique that Banksy would later popularize. Alongside chimps, rats feature in some of Banksy’s most recognizable and sought-after works, acting as visual shorthand for his broader critiques of power, authority, and societal norms.
3D Rat (2010), also known as Dirty Rat or Stage Rat, is a notable example of this motif. It first appeared in 2010 on the stage door of the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah, coinciding with the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Banksy’s documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010). The Egyptian Theatre, a nonprofit cinema and live performance venue, offered an ideal canvas for Banksy’s creative expression: public, symbolic, and deeply intertwined with cultural spectacle. During this period, Banksy left several works scattered throughout Park City.
READ ABOUT EXIT THOUGH THE GIFT SHOP
3D Rat offers a sharply observed meditation on the chasm between perception and reality—one that is as absurd as it is poignant. In this work, the ever-resourceful rat dons a pair of 3D glasses, not to enhance its vision, but to underscore its futility. Far from a cinematic thrill, the gesture becomes a wry commentary on our collective gullibility. In a world riddled with digital illusions and glossy veneers, Banksy’s rat, guided more by touch than sight, emerges as a tragicomic figure: the everyman groping through a fog of fabricated truths.
Set against a drab grey backdrop—an unceremonious canvas that captures the murky ambiguity of modern media—the nocturnal rodent assumes the role of proxy for the passive consumer, bumbling through the twilight of information fatigue. The rat’s night-bound instincts serve as a clever metaphor for our own dimly lit journey through a landscape of disinformation, where every headline is a hall of mirrors and every ‘truth’ arrives pre-packaged in augmented reality.
In typical Banksy fashion, the work doesn’t stop at social critique—it jabs at the existential. Despite the flashy eyewear, the rat remains blind to anything real, echoing the fate of society’s overlooked and marginalized, who remain unseen beneath the dazzle of modern spectacle. The rodent, like us, is both spectator and spectacle, forever peering into the noise and catching only static.
Ultimately, Banksy’s bespectacled rat prompts a quiet reckoning: what are we really seeing when we claim to see clearly? The 3D glasses, intended to sharpen vision, merely warp it—transforming reality into theatre and depth into distortion. In this silent tragicomedy, Rat With 3D Glasses nudges us to discard our illusions, take off the goggles, and perhaps—just perhaps—try looking with our eyes open.
