BIRD WITH GRENADE, 2005

Provenance

• A gift from the artist to the present owner in 2005

Auction History

Catalogue Note

Bird with Grenade is one of Banksy’s most deceptively simple compositions. A cheerful cartoon bird, rendered with exaggerated innocence, delicately clasps a live hand grenade in its beak as though it were carrying a twig back to its nest. The absurd juxtaposition lies at the heart of the work: an enduring symbol of peace and freedom is transformed into an unwitting messenger of violence. With characteristic economy, Banksy compresses one of the great contradictions of the modern world into a single unforgettable image.

Throughout his career, Banksy has repeatedly paired childhood imagery, animals and popular cartoon aesthetics with symbols of war, exposing the ease with which violence infiltrates everyday life. Here, the bird appears blissfully unaware of the destructive power it carries, suggesting a world in which conflict has become so commonplace that it is accepted almost instinctively. The work’s bright palette and playful execution only intensify this dissonance, inviting viewers to smile before confronting the darker implications beneath the surface.

Executed in Banksy’s iconic stencil style, Bird with Grenade is a quintessential example of the artist’s visual language: immediate, humorous and profoundly unsettling. Like Love Is In The Air, Happy Choppers and Bomb Middle England, it demonstrates Banksy’s extraordinary ability to transform the symbols of conflict into poetic metaphors, reminding us that in his world, innocence and violence are never as far apart as they first appear.