Bomb Love, 2002

Bomb Love is pure Banksy: provocative, bitingly satirical and yet tender. Always a vicious opponent of mass media and casual consumerism the sense that today’s youth are being sold aggression instead of innocence, war instead of play explodes from the canvas in a flash of bubble-gum pink. The little girl sporting a ponytail tightly hugs onto the cumbersome military weapon as if it were her favorite cuddly toy and this is redolent of his Girl and Balloon in its whimsicality, and Kids on Guns in its wistful agony. All three images are stone cold classics by the artist coming from the zenith of the artist’s most celebrated period.

The image that first appeared as a black-and-white stencil on the streets of East London in 2001 has since become an iconic Banksy motif which is highly sought after by collectors. Executed on canvas and tagged with the artist’s distinctive signature, Bomb Love from 2002 is executed onto a rosy base colour reminiscent of infanthood that enhances the motif and gives the work itself an innocent and naïve quality. Bomb Love is fresh to the market and whilst the artist later executed a print version of the popular subject, works on canvas from the series are rare at auction with the last comparable work having been offered over a decade ago.