The Drinker | |
---|---|
Artist | Banksy |
Year | 2004 |
Medium | Metal |
Condition | Stolen |
Location | London, United Kingdom |
51°31′00″N0°07′35″W / 51.5167°N 0.1264°W |
The Drinker is a statue by graffiti artist Banksy, not to be confused with the stencil of the same name, a graffiti artwork of a rat drinking a cocktail, on a wall at North Beach, Lowestoft, England. [1] [2]
In 2004, the statue was placed, in a small square at Princes Circus, on Shaftesbury Avenue, between New Oxford Street and High Holborn, central London. [3] [4] It is a subversive comment using The Thinker by Auguste Rodin. [4]
In March 2004, [5] The Drinker was stolen by "art terrorist", football hooligan [6] Andy Link, a former porn star, [6] with an arrest record, [6] and a record of drug charges, [6] (also known as AK47). [7]
Around a year after Link took The Drinker, Link says he registered "the lost and found item" with police, and contacted Banksy, asking for £5,000, or an original canvas, "to cover costs". [8]
In 2007, [8] three years after Link stole it, the sculpture was taken from Link's garden, [9] while he was away. [4] [10]
In December 2015, Link re-installed, as "The Stinker", "an imitation of Banksy’s sculpture" [11] "The Drinker", modified with a toilet seat, cistern, and graffiti, in central London. [12]
"The Stinker" (2015) was a commissioned from sculptor Emmanuel Okoro. [13]
The 2016 crowdfunded documentary (with "dream-reenactment sequence", "amusing artifice" [14] ) film The Banksy Job is about Andy Link and the work. [15] [16] [17] [18]
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls and bridges throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.
Sotheby's is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and maintains a significant presence in the UK.
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art," "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
The year 2009 in art involves various significant events.
Parachuting Rat was a series of artworks in Melbourne, Australia, created by Banksy. On 26 April 2010, one was painted over by council contractors, leading to local and international coverage and debate on the nature of street art and its preservation, and new measures for its protection.
Better Out Than In was a residency undertaken by pseudonymous graffiti artist and political activist Banksy in New York City during October 2013. Banksy unveiled at least one work of art daily, documenting it on both a dedicated website and an Instagram account. The majority of the works were stencil graffiti and chiefly political, a distinctive characteristic of Banksy. Other pieces and multimedia exhibits toyed with dark humor and satire.
"Turf War" was the first major exhibition by artist Banksy, staged in a warehouse on Kingsland Road in London's East End in 2003.
Bombing Middle England is a painting by graffiti artist Banksy. It is made of acrylic and spray paint on canvas, and depicts pensioners bowling with bombs in a manner reminiscent of Cinders McLeod's 1999 drawing Anarchic Granny.
Girl with Balloon is a series of stencil murals around London by the graffiti artist Banksy, started in 2002. They depict a young girl with her hand extended toward a red heart-shaped balloon carried away by the wind. The locations for this work include street murals in Shoreditch and the South bank in London on the Waterloo Bridge and other murals were around London, though none remain there.
Bomb Hugger is a 2003 painting by graffiti artist Banksy. In 2007, it sold for £31,200 at Sotheby's.
Cardinal Sin is a 2011 sculpture by graffiti artist Banksy. It is a bust of a cardinal with his face sawn off and replaced with blank tiles. The work was unveiled at the Walker Art Gallery in 2011.
The Banksy Job is a 2016 documentary film directed by Ian Roderick Gray and Dylan Harvey about how self-described "art terrorist" Andy Link (AK47) stole Banksy's 2004 sculpture, The Drinker.
The year 2018 in art involves various significant events.
The year 2020 in art involved various significant events.
The year 2021 in art involves various significant events.
A Great British Spraycation are a series of 2021 artworks by the anonymous British street artist Banksy in various East Anglian towns in England. Pieces appeared in Great Yarmouth, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft, Gorleston-on-Sea, Cromer, and King's Lynn.
I haven't got a clue what this means, so I ask the Guardian's art critic, Adrian Searle. "This is the sort of thing that really, really bad wannabe artists blurt out, as a sort of verbal smokescreen," he says. "The tone is telling - wounded, aggressive, hectoring, melodramatic, apocalyptic, with feeble stabs at humour. It is a waste of my 'primary processes' to try to get to the bottom of it, if it has one. In my view, AK47 are a few seminars short of an art-theory course. In any case, loads of art deals with time, and with the fact that art is a process and a journey as much as it is about objects which can be bought and sold. And who believes all this rot about 'timelessness' any more, anyway? Maybe they were hit on the head by one of those leaky rocks."
2015/16 Commission: Collabaration film with AK47 and Daylight Robbery LTD (Recreation of Banksy drinker) now the (Stinker) (Daylight Robbery)
Andy Link Linky aka AK47 attends The Banksy Job Premiere about the day a Banksy statue was snatched from London in broad daylight, The Prince Charles Cinema, London.