Originals

Banksy’s originals, or unique studio pieces, can be categorised in many ways; this is one way of looking at it:

Oils on canvas
Crude oils
Corrupted oils
Mixed technique on metal
Mixed technique on board or woodpanel
Sculptures
Installations

Oil on canvas

There are some misconceptions out there about whether Banksy can paint or not. Of course, he can paint! From the start, he showed talent not only in ideas and narrative, but also in mixing colours and handling a paintbrush on a canvas.

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The Crude Oils serie

Another good example of Banksy’s brushstroke is the Crude Oils exhibition from 2005, where Banksy painted his versions of 20 classical oil paintings.

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Corrupted oils

Banksy has done approx. 50 pieces where he used charity shop paintings as groundwork. This subgenre has been labelled “corrupted oils”. One standard corrupted oil is a stencilled helicopter with some hand-painted details on top of the charity-shop motive, typically a rural landscape: