BANKSY
Playmate of the Month, 2000
Acrylic and marker on wood
38.5 x 43.5 cm (15 1/8 x 17 1/8 inches)
Stencil-signed “BANKSY”, lower right
Private Collection, Europe
Bonhams, London, 24 October 2007, Lot 153
Private collection, Europe
Sotheby’s, London, 13 February 2014, Lot 348
Private Collection, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Severnshed, Bristol, 2000
Sotheby’s London: 27 June 2018
Estimated: GBP 80,000 – 120,000
GBP 187,500
In Playmate of the Month, Banksy hijacks the language of desire and destruction with a tank that wears, of all things, pink Playboy bunny ears. The juxtaposition is both absurd and biting: a brutal machine of war playfully accessorized with the iconography of sex and fantasy. Against a rich blue backdrop, the cartoonish tank lumbers forward, its deadly seriousness undercut by the soft rebellion of its headgear.
Banksy’s title riffs on the commodification of women in pop culture while hinting at the fetishization of violence in media. Is this war dressed up for mass appeal? Or a dig at how entertainment, eroticism, and militarism blur in our collective consciousness? Either way, it’s a deadly joke—and we’re in on it. With characteristic wit and minimal strokes, Banksy turns a killing machine into a punchline. Or perhaps, a mirror.
