LAUGH NOW, 2002

Provenance

• Acquired as a gift from the artist circa 2005 by the present owner

Auction History

Catalogue Note

Executed in 2002, Laugh Now belongs to the formative period in which Banksy established the chimpanzee as one of the most recognisable figures in his visual vocabulary. The animal stands facing the viewer, its shoulders hunched and arms hanging heavily at its sides, wearing a sandwich board bearing the familiar warning: “Laugh now, but one day we'll be in charge.” The apparent resignation of the figure contrasts with the defiance of its message, creating the ambiguity that has made the composition one of Banksy's most enduring images.

This particular execution is distinguished by its spray-painted acrylic support, an unconventional medium that reflects Banksy's experimentation with materials during the early 2000s. Unlike the canvas or wooden panels employed for other versions of the motif, the smooth acrylic surface provides a distinctly different foundation for the stencil. The black aerosol paint retains the characteristic softness of sprayed edges and subtle variations in density, qualities that distinguish the original artwork from the mechanically reproduced screenprints subsequently published by Pictures on Walls. The composition is reduced to a single figure against an otherwise unadorned background, allowing the relationship between image and text to remain the principal focus.

The chimpanzee occupies a central position in Banksy's early exploration of power, social hierarchy and the uneasy relationship between humans and animals. Its sandwich board evokes the language of protest and public advertising, while the message transforms a seemingly submissive creature into a spokesman for those excluded from established structures of authority. The identity of the collective “we” remains deliberately ambiguous, allowing the warning to encompass social outsiders, political dissenters and the graffiti artist himself.

The work is also distinguished by its early provenance, having reportedly been given directly by Banksy to its owner around 2005. Its appearance at Sotheby's in October 2026 provides an important market reference for this particular execution, which should be distinguished from the other paintings, panels and editions bearing the same title. Selling for £256,000 against an estimate of £60,000–80,000, it achieved more than three times the upper estimate, illustrating the continuing collector interest in original examples of Banksy's formative imagery.