Untitled (Laugh Now…), 1998

Catalogue Note

Among the earliest surviving incarnations of one of Banksy’s most celebrated motifs, Untitled (Laugh Now…) captures the artist at the very moment his visual language was beginning to crystallize. Executed in 1998 and gifted directly by the artist, the work predates many of the more familiar single-chimp compositions and remains remarkably close in spirit to the monumental Laugh Now mural created for the Ocean Rooms nightclub in Brighton.

Rather than presenting an isolated figure, Banksy depicts a procession of anonymous chimpanzees stretching beyond the edges of the composition. Each wears the now-famous placard proclaiming, “Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge.” The repetition is crucial. These are not individual portraits but a collective—a silent, obedient workforce whose identical appearance evokes conformity, exploitation and latent rebellion. The message functions simultaneously as prophecy, warning and joke.

Throughout his career, monkeys became one of Banksy’s most enduring metaphors for humanity itself. Borrowing from the long tradition of singerie—the artistic convention of depicting monkeys behaving like humans—he transforms the chimpanzee into a mirror of modern society. Far from ridiculing the animal, Banksy suggests that it is often mankind that behaves most absurdly. The placard therefore carries a double meaning: those who appear powerless today may ultimately inherit authority, while those who laugh from positions of privilege may discover that power is never permanent.

The composition’s striking simplicity contributes enormously to its effectiveness. Against a vivid red ground, the monochrome figures march rhythmically across the surface, their repetition recalling industrial production lines, political demonstrations and even prison roll calls. Banksy removes every unnecessary detail, allowing the relationship between image and text to deliver its message with immediate clarity.

This early work established ideas that would resonate throughout Banksy’s career. The chimpanzee would reappear in Monkey Queen, Monkey Parliament, Monkey Detonator, and most spectacularly in Devolved Parliament, where the satirical prophecy of the placards appears to have finally come true. What begins here as a row of anonymous workers ultimately evolves into one of the artist’s most ambitious political allegories.

Gifted directly by Banksy in 1998, this painting also belongs to a formative period when the artist’s works circulated among friends, collaborators and local supporters rather than the international art market. Such examples preserve not only the imagery itself but also the spirit of an artist who had yet to become a global phenomenon.

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More than twenty-five years later, the slogan has lost none of its relevance. Equal parts dark comedy and political prophecy, Untitled (Laugh Now…) remains one of the clearest expressions of Banksy’s enduring belief that authority is never fixed, that history has an ironic sense of humor, and that today’s spectators may become tomorrow’s rulers. Indeed, few images better announce the arrival of the artistic voice that would soon transform contemporary street art forever.