Possessing an iconic status, Banksy’s Girl with Balloon is one of the most widely recognisable artworks and images in existence. The present example belongs to a rare silkscreen edition 88 artist’s proofs comprised of different colour variants. With a metallic gold balloon – a highly sought after and coveted iteration within the concise series of APs – this piece enshrines Banksy’s most famous image. Beating Turner’s The Fighting t.mes raire, Constable’s The Hay Wain and Hockney’s A Bigger Splash to the top spot, Banksy’s Girl with Balloon was voted the nation’s favourite artwork in a 2017 poll; a resounding affirmation that was further compounded by the dramatic live ‘shredding’ event at Replica Shoes ’s in October 2018 which notoriously turned a Girl with Balloon canvas into Love is in the Bin – a work that has since been exhibited at the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden and more recently at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart where it has been on permanent loan. It’s impact on visitor numbers of the latter has been substantial, and further reinforces the powerful and wide-reaching popularity of this culturally formidable image and its mysterious author.

Banksy has garnered international acclaim for his distinctive style of satirical street art; however he is so much more than just a graffiti artist-rebel. His work is rich in dark humour and frequently carries subversive epigrams or symbolic allusions that provide poignant and potent commentaries on social and political aspects of contemporary society. Girl with Balloon depicts a stenciled motif of a child reaching out towards a heart-shaped balloon which has floated out of her grasp. As is typical of Banksy, this image is an ambiguous one as it conveys both a sense of hope or joy and a sad sense of melancholy and loss. Indeed, is the girl is reaching out to catch the balloon – a vibrant emblem of childhood play – or has she let it slip through her fingers as she watches it drifts into oblivion – a metaphor, perhaps, for the inevitable loss of innocence. The motif was first seen on London’s streets in 2002, becoming a familiar presence on London’s Southbank accompanied by the epitaph: ‘There is Always Hope’. With a graphic power that is emblematic and instantly understood, Banksy’s spray-painted image is a perfect encapsulation of human emotion for our social media age: it seditiously pokes fun at high-minded art world savoir faire and in doing so appeals to many, for whom it represents a contemporary expression of sanctity, a bright and vivid symbol of hope everlasting.

Ultimately, Girl with Balloon is considered the defining icon of Banksy’s art: whether you are for or against him, this image utterly encapsulates the immediacy and controversy surrounding the artist’s mission. As wonderfully expressed by BBC arts editor Will Gompertz: “You might not agree with him, but at least he is making art that penetrates the public consciousness; art that is in the world, not detached from it; art that raises questions that need an airing… Banksy makes art that, as Hamlet said, holds ‘…the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the t.mes his form and pressure’” (Will Gompertz, ‘Will Gompertz on Banksy's shredded Love is in the Bin’, BBC News, 13 October 2018, online).