There is a statue of the Duke of Wellington outside the Gallery of Modern Art of Scotland (GoMA), and for over 40 years the people of Glasgow have topped him with a traffic cone. When local authorities devised a plan in 2013 to raise the statue higher so it couldn’t be reached by impromptu hatters, there was public outcry and a petition that quickly garnered thousands of signatories. The cone remained, a monument to the city’s playful sense of humor.
Banksy called it his favorite work of art in the UK and one of the main reasons why his first official exhibition in 14 years (and there have been several unofficial those) will be staged at the Scottish institution.
“Cut & Run,” which is on view from June 18 to August 28, takes people into the practice and thought of one of the world’s most famous street artists through works of art, artifacts and personal items, including his toilet, many of which have never been displayed before. This intention is clear from the first room, in which visitors walk through a replica artist’s studio with a rack of spray cans and a suitably disorganized workstation.
The opening room of Banksy’s ‘Cut & Run’ at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow. Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images.
The works on display span from 1988 to the present day, with Banksy’s original stencils for some of his most famous pieces highlighting those he claims to have long kept hidden for fear of being charged with criminal damages.
There is Kiss the brass, the 2004 black-and-white work of two male police officers getting intimate that first appeared outside a pub in Brighton, the UK’s LGBTQ+ capital. there is sound Port Talbot stencil that highlighted the poor air quality of the area with a boy with open arms playing in snow-like ash. There’s one of a young female gymnast performing a headstand from her “Borodyanka, Ukraine” series that Banksy sprayed to protest against the invasion of the country by Russia.
by Banksy Basquiat arrested and searched (2017) on view in Glasgow. Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images.
“Cut & Run” features other provocations of the non-graffiti variety, including a riot police helmet transformed into a disco ball and the Union Jack-patterned dagger vest he made for British rapper Stomzyahead of his Glastonbury headliner in 2019.
Visitors are also entitled to a detailed itinerary of Love is in the trashBanksy’s 2018 artwork that shredded moments after it sold for $1.4 million at Sotheby’s (it sold for $25.4 million at the same auction house three years ago later).
GoMA, which is run by the city council, is understandably delighted to have been chosen as the stage for an official Banksy exhibition. “Street art has become one of Glasgow’s signatures,” Councilor Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said in a statement. “No one has done more to put street art at the heart of culture, politics and society than Banksy. We are delighted that Banksy has chosen Glasgow to host their work.
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