GIRL WITH ICE CREAM ON PALETTE

Catalogue Note

Girl with Ice Cream on Palette (2003) is pure Banksy: provocative, bitingly satirical and yet tender. Always a vicious opponent of mass media and casual consumerism in 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 hot pink. The little girl sporting a pigtail amiably hold onto the melting cone of ice cream with the cumbersome explosive weapon as if it were her favourite summertime joy. This is truly a stone-cold classic by Banksy coming from the zenith of the artist's most celebrated period. Banksy's works intend to shock, yet they also aim to engender thought-provoking discourse through their simple visual elements. The proximity of someone so vulnerable, yet so close to danger, is undoubtedly compelling, and through Banksy's clever dichotomy, the artist is sending a message of optimism to the universe, with the aspiration that one day love will overcome war.

"I like to think I have the guts to stand up anonymously in a western democracy and call for things no-one else believes in – like peace and justice and freedom"

Girl with Ice Cream on Palette is charged with a veiled anti-war sentiment and through his rendering, Banksy is tackling international concerns, and critiquing the government and the media for the rose-tinted glasses worn during periods of brutal warfare. This evident juxtaposition of the fragilities of childhood, closely intertwined with the atrocities of war, is an ironic combination of subject matters common in Banksy's Street art. The depiction of a young child heightens the emotions of love, loss, and hope and there is seemingly an appetite amongst collectors for this powerful motif of lost innocence. Executed in 2003, Girl with Ice Cream on Palette is a prime model of Banksy's enduring anti-war art of the last two decades.