Posted in: Comics | Tagged: banksy, David Jones, Robuin Gunningham

Banksy Revealed As Robin Gunningham (Again) But Also David Jones

The infamous graffiti artist Banksy has been revealed to be Robin Gunningham (again)... but also David Jones #banksy

Banksy is one of the world's most famous living artists, most famously innovating with graffiti stencils, allowing him to meticulously create an image in private, then spray-paint it onto buildings in minutes without being caught. Initially seen as a menace, the value of his work has been preserved by the very same bodies that once whitewashed it. Satirical political commentary mashed up with whimsy has made his work popular among the general public, art collectors, and cultural commentators, even as it has spread, become more complex and taken new forms, raising awareness of causes and charities, even as his work is appropriated, commodified and splintered into pieces. Working in Soho in the noughties, seeing his work, from the rats around the bottom of walls, to the CCTV camera above the big Post Office, was a cultural highlight at the time.

I also met him, without realising who he was. More on that in a minute. But who was he? He was one of a number of anonymous individuals who gained such fame twenty/thirty years ago, back when you could do so more easily. His work was once exhibited in Soho early on, where Gosh Comics is now. At one advertising agency in Putney, I worked with another copywriter, Marina O'Loughlin, who had a side hustle as a restaurant reviewer who never took freebies, and no one knew who she was. She became quite famous for being a mystery, yet we all knew who she was. But the restauranters did not…

In 2008, the Mail On Sunday revealed that Banksy was Robin Gunningham. Armed with an alleged photo of Bankys, they told us "Robin's father, Peter Gordon Gunningham, 66, is a retired contracts manager from the Whitehall area of Bristol. His mother, Pamela Ann Dawkin-Jones, 67, was a company director's secretary and grew up in the exclusive surroundings of Clifton. She now works in a nursing home….  A neighbour, Anthony Hallett, recalls the couple moving into the street as newlyweds and living there until 1998. They have since separated. When we showed Mr Hallett the Jamaica photograph, he said the man in it was Robin Gunningham." And quoted Hallet as saying, "The family was always very nice. I don't know for sure, but I think Robin was working as a graffiti artist. He worked for other people and would disappear for months on end. He was quite nomadic. I would not go as far as to say he went off the rails, but there was some sort of rift in the family, probably because he didn't turn out quite as they hoped. He just disappeared after he left home."

And there was his private schooling at Bristol Cathedral School."Scott Nurse, an insurance broker who was in Robin's class, said: 'He was one of three people in my year who were extremely talented at art. He did lots of illustrations. I am not at all surprised if he is Banksy. He was also in the house rugby team, and I think he played hockey as well.'" Banksy was previously quoted in 2006 as saying, "I came from a relatively small city in southern England. When I was about ten years old, a kid called 3D was painting the streets hard. I think he'd been to New York and was the first to bring spray painting back to Bristol. I grew up seeing spray paint on the streets way before I ever saw it in a magazine or on a computer."

And quoted Camilla Stacey, a curator at Bristol's Here Gallery, who bought Robin Gunningham's home in 2000, confirming they were the same person. "I bought the house that he used to live in. He had rented out a room, but I think there had been problems with the tenants, and the landlord had to sort of repossess it or whatever, so he was just selling it. When I moved in, the place had been covered in graffiti and stuff like that. I threw things in the bin." They also plot Robin Gunningham's movements, which coincide with the appearance of Banksy's work, around the world. Although denied by Banksy's representatives, it was a pretty closed case. But people preferred Banksy to be a mystery, and solving it would have meant less to write, to speculate, to talk about. So the entire media pretty much chose to ignore the Mail's scoop.

What made it more annoying was that I am sure I bought self-published comics/fanzines from Robin Gunningham at a Bristol comic convention run by Kev F Sutherland sometime in the early noughties… and no, I no longer have them. But some people must.

Two days ago, Reuters revealed he had legally changed his name to David Jones. This had made it a lot harder for folks to track him down when travelling internationally, signing contracts or receiving payment, if they were still looking for "Robin Gunningham" on documents. But Reuters found "David Jones" recorded travelling cross-country, using a passport with the same birthday as Gunningham, alongside Banksy associates in areas where he would be operating.

They also had police records from 2000, when Banksy defaced an advertising billboard in Manhattan on behalf of a gallery owner, but was arrested halfway through finishing, something he has since talked about without identifying the billboard, place, or date. The record includes Banksy's written confession, signed Robin Gunningham. It also cited his work when he stayed at the Carlton Arms Hotel in New York, which let artists stay for free if they decorated their rooms with painted, cartoony murals from the late nineties, signed "Robin Banks", and the hotel was listed in police records as Gunningham's place of residence. The murals are still there, but hadn't been identified as Banksy until now. This arresting incident may have led to him to choose stencil work, taking minutes to place in situ, rather than doing the whole work, there and then. It created an aesthetic, as well as an ability to be prolific – and not get caught.

And they interviewed a former manager of Banksy, Steve Lazarides, who told them that he arranged the legal name change, after the Mail On Sunday article, back in 2008. "There is no Robin Gunningham. The name you've got I killed years ago… I think it became a good gag, and then, if you want my honest, honest opinion, I think it then became a disease." Though he declined to share the name, he just said it was a boring one without hidden meaning.

Banksy's long-time lawyer, Mark Stephens, told Reuters that the artist "does not accept that many of the details contained within your enquiry are correct" and urged Reuters not to publish the piece as it might harm his privacy, put him danger and stop him from being able to create art freely, that Banksy had received threatens and that his ability to work "anonymously or under a pseudonym serves vital societal interests". Maybe it's time to change his name again? How about Marina O'Loughlin?

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