Fallen Angel, 2008
Spray-paint on paper
56.3 x 75.5 cm (22 3/16 x 29 3/4 inches)
Signed and inscribed Thanks Simon ☮
This work has been executed on the reverse of a Morons Sepia print
Provenance
Simon Evans Collection, UK (gift from the artist in 2008)
Auction History
Bonhams London: 13 October 2022
GBP 227,100
Bonhams : BANKSY (B. 1975) Fallen Angel 2008
In 2002, Banksy published a short book entitled Existencialism, which illustrated a selection of his early street art created in various public locations, from the Millenium Bridge in London to the giraffe enclosure at Barcelona Zoo. Amongst the works highlighted in Existencialism, is a graffiti stencilling of a downtrodden and lonesome angel spraypainted onto an inconspicuous door on Old Street. The work from Old Street is a precursor of the present lot Fallen Angel, and in both pieces Banksy’s highly stylized and graphic visual language is on full display.
Fallen Angel combines all the masterful elements of Banksy’s practice in one work – vivid symbolism, an acute awareness of social issues and the dramatic chiaroscuro-like contrasts resulting from the artist’s stencilling technique. Much like the original public piece on Old Street which inspired the present work, the lit cigarette, crinkled clothes, and trainers on the individual shows that the Fallen Angel is in fact an ordinary person, not a divine being. This is Banksy’s empathetic manner of suggesting that anyone can have a fall from grace.
The focus on an angelic figure is a mark of Banksy’s highly satirical genius; under Banksy’s hand, the figures of cherubs or putti from Renaissance and Baroque art are subverted from symbols of peace, prosperity, and joy to victims of modern poverty and subjects of societal denigration. Banksy deliberately used a heavier application of white spray paint on the head and shoulder of the crouched angel and used a lighter hand on the legs. Viewing the lower half of the scene, the figure almost seems to vanish from the audience’s gaze. The dramatic spot lit effect on the subject deepens this atmosphere of undue public judgement.
BANKSY, OLD STREET, LONDON, 2007
IMAGE: © JENNY MATTHEWS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Although most details of Banksy’s identity remain a mystery, the story of Fallen Angel provenance provides a first-hand glimpse into the artist’s sense of humor. The present work was gifted by the artist to the comedian Simon Evans after including one of Evans’ jokes alongside an illustration of the earlier, Old Street version of Fallen Angel in Existencilism. The joke as told on the stage goes ‘it is rather ironic… that the favorite drink of the homeless, should be a beer called Tennent’s’. Unlike the Old Street version, the present Fallen Angel includes Banksy’s signature on the lower right and is inscribed Thanks Simon ☮.
The work was also sent with a handwritten note from Banksy, who jokes ‘Who said good things come to those who wait? “Average stencil garbage” is more like it’. This tongue-in-cheek and ironic wit is also evident when the reverse of Fallen Angel is viewed. It is executed on the back of a Morons Sepia print – one of Banksy’s most scathing yet commercially popular commentaries on the art world.
In Banksy’s world, exposing the truth takes precedence to following established social, moral or behavioral codes. Banksy engages with a long art historical tradition of compassionately capturing aspects of life that are often downplayed, forgotten, or censored altogether. The artist follows in the footsteps of Spanish Old Master painter Francisco Goya, whose Black Paintings visually chronicle the artist’s criticisms of war and contemporary Spanish society, or American photographer Dorothea Lange who documented the plight of impoverished families during the Great Depression.
