BANKSY
The Key To Making Great Art Is All In The Composition, 2005
Acrylic and spray-paint stencil on canvas
50×50 cm (19 5/8 x 19 5/8 inches)
Edition of 4
Signed and dated “06/05/05” on the reverse
Stenciled with the artist’s name three times on the left lateral edge
Exhibited
Crude Oils, London, 2003
Banksy: The Unauthorized Restrospective, S/2 London, curated by Steve Lazarides, 2014
Catalogue Note
Created for the legendary Crude Oils exhibition, the work reveals another facet of Banksy’s practice. Rather than appropriating a historical painting, he appropriates the language of artistic authority itself. The deadpan statement simultaneously mocks academic theories of aesthetics while demonstrating them: the words are deliberately positioned off-center, making their placement—the composition—the very subject of the work.
At once playful and surprisingly profound, The Key To Making Great Art Is All In The Composition encapsulates Banksy’s enduring ability to blur the boundaries between text, image and concept. Like the finest examples of conceptual art, its apparent simplicity conceals a sophisticated reflection on what art is, how meaning is constructed, and how easily artistic dogma can be turned into satire.
