Catalogue Note

Executed in 2015, Rat and Heart revisits one of Banksy’s oldest and most enduring symbols: the rat. Since the late 1990s, these humble urban creatures have populated walls, bridges and forgotten corners of cities around the world, becoming the artist’s unofficial alter ego. Here, however, the familiar icon appears in one of its most restrained and lyrical incarnations. Against an almost entirely white canvas, a solitary rat gazes upward toward a small crimson heart painted with the spontaneity of a brushstroke.

The composition is striking for its economy. There is no elaborate setting, no political slogan and no overt satire. Instead, Banksy reduces the image to its essential elements, allowing silence and empty space to become as meaningful as the figures themselves.

Throughout history, the rat has symbolized disease, decay and social exclusion. Banksy has consistently challenged these associations, transforming the animal into a figure of resilience, intelligence and quiet resistance. Living beneath the structures of society yet surviving every attempt at eradication, the rat embodies the outsider—small, overlooked and underestimated, but ultimately indestructible.

In Rat and Heart, that outsider encounters one of the oldest symbols of human emotion. The heart hovers just beyond reach, suggesting aspiration rather than possession. Whether the rat is seeking affection, freedom, hope or redemption is deliberately left unresolved. Banksy resists sentimentality, instead inviting viewers to reflect on the universal human desire for connection, regardless of status or circumstance.

The contrast between the rough realism of the animal and the painterly simplicity of the heart creates a visual dialogue between the material and the symbolic. Love appears fragile, almost accidental, yet powerful enough to command the attention of a creature otherwise associated with survival alone.

Few motifs are more closely associated with Banksy than the rat. Inspired in part by the graffiti philosophy of the French artist Blek le Rat, Banksy transformed the animal into one of the defining protagonists of his visual language. Unlike his monkeys, policemen or protesters, the rats rarely confront authority directly. Instead, they quietly infiltrate the city, occupying forgotten spaces and reminding us that the margins often reveal more truth than the center.

Rat and Heart demonstrates that Banksy can be at his most profound when he says the least. Through the encounter between an overlooked creature and a simple painted heart, he transforms an urban pest into a meditation on hope, vulnerability and the quiet dignity of those who exist at society’s edges. Small in scale yet immense in emotional resonance, the work captures the essence of Banksy’s art: the belief that compassion can emerge from the most unexpected places, and that even the humblest of creatures may still dare to reach for beauty.