Banksy (1974) - Peckham Rock

Banksy

A wooden Banksy’s ‘Peckham Rock’ wall art, authorised by Pest Control/ Banksy for the British Museum as part of the iObject exhibition.

Very good condition

Banksy’s ‘Peckham Rock' is a piece of concrete showing a supposed prehistoric figure pushing a shopping trolley. This was placed in The British Museum in 2005, accompanied by an authentic looking information label and was there for three days before anyone realised something was amiss.

The reverse has a copy of the text from the information label that was originally placed with the wall art.

Banksy operates as a modern bridge between the historical avant-garde and the urban landscape, recontextualizing the legacies of masters like Picasso and Dalí through his rebellious spirit and theatrical public stunts. He adopts Andy Warhol’s Pop Art language to critique the very consumerism Warhol celebrated, while engaging in a deep dialogue with public space that mirrors the monumentalism of Eduardo Chillida, the whimsical irony of Juan Ripollés, and the political appropriation of historical imagery championed by Manolo Valdés. Ultimately, by transforming the raw texture of street walls into a canvas for social critique, Banksy compresses the subversion, geometry, and pop sensibilities of these titans into sharp, stencil-shaped mirrors that reflect the chaos of the 21st century.