ABE LINCOLN, 2008

Provenance

• Acquired directly from the artist
• Neal Auction Company, New Orleans, 13 July 2013, lot 353
• Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Auction History

Catalogue Note

In 2008, Banksy paid a visit to New Orleans in the United States following the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina three years prior. Leaving behind a trail of tags and trademark stencils, Banksy used the still-tattered streets and buildings as a backdrop for his poetic yet poignant critiques of the slow pace of reconstruction by officials.

“I wanted to highlight the state of the clean-up operation. Only later did it dawn on me that if you choose to do this by drawing all over their stuff, you’re actually only slowing down that clean-up operation.”

One of the works he created was a stenciled rendering of former U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln. Spray-painted onto the wall of a damaged building at a major intersection, the site has since been demolished to make way for a healthcare facility.

Using the same stencil he would then employ for the three Abe Lincoln works on cardboard, including the present composition, Banksy’s site-specific version portrayed Lincoln as displaced person living on the streets, pushing a trolley full of possessions. Lincoln was the great figurehead of the emancipation movement which liberated the slaves of the Southern Sates, and in depicting Lincoln in a such a poorly advantaged position, Banksy showcases his sharp sense of satire in highlighting the shortcomings of Lincoln’s political descendants.

Abraham Lincoln photographed by Alexander Gardner during the Battle of Antietam, 1862

As one of the first American presidents to make use of photography to promote his image, in the years leading up to his first presidential election, photographs of Lincoln were widely disseminated to counter rumors of his unusual height and supposed ugliness, instead giving the candidate a more human aspect. Here, Banksy transforms the famous face of ‘Honest Abe’ into a ghoulish presence with pupil-less, ghostly eyes, overlayed by acid-green spots. Deflating the reverence that often surrounds Lincoln’s legacy, Banksy instead exhibits his satirical humor in taking the former president’s image and instead presenting him with comical, uncanny features, rendered in the artist’s signature graphic style.