114 pages Curated by Steve Lazarides 21.5 × 16.5 cm Language: English Paperback Publisher: Sotheby’s, London 2014
Two uniformed figures raise their cameras on the cover of The Unauthorised Retrospective. The image turns surveillance into a visual joke, a device that recurs across the paintings and prints assembled by Banksy’s former dealer Steve Lazarides. The selection spans the artist’s early years in Bristol through 2009, bringing together works such as Kissing Coppers, Toxic Mary and the Kate Moss screenprint.
Seen together, the works show how Banksy makes familiar images say something unexpected. A police uniform, a devotional pose or a celebrity portrait can carry the joke before the viewer has had time to place it. Published for Sotheby’s selling exhibition, the catalogue also records a moment when imagery associated with the street was being presented to collectors in a London gallery.
