Exploring Bristol through Banksy street art

(Credits: Far Out / Banksy / YouTube Stills) Wed 5 June 2024 12:30, UK All it takes is to watch such influential movies as John Badham’s Saturday Night Fever or Walter Hill’s The Warriors to consider just how vibrant the subway of New York was with graffiti in the 1970s. Indeed, the modern history of street art can be traced back to the underground world of New York City in the late 20th century, where tags painted the city and gave it a style that would become synonymous with the Big Apple. With the rise in popularity, such icons as Cornbread and TAKI 183 rose to prominence, with their work lighting up the streets of Philadelphia and New York, respectively. Inevitably, this led to a global appreciation of the organic art form, especially as the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring would raise the bar of the medium throughout the same decade. Across the Atlantic, European artists took note, with Jef Aérosol and Blek le Rat gaining popularity alongside another British graffiti artist that would soon take the world by storm. Painting their first mural, The Mild Mild West, on the highstreet of Stokes Croft, Bristol, in 1997, Banksy...