Napalm (Serpentine edition)
Napalm (Serpentine edition)
Signed Print
Banksy
£26,000-£40,000Value Indicator
$50,000-$80,000 Value Indicator
$50,000-$70,000 Value Indicator
¥250,000-¥390,000 Value Indicator
€30,000-€45,000 Value Indicator
$270,000-$420,000 Value Indicator
¥5,180,000-¥7,970,000 Value Indicator
$35,000-$50,000 Value Indicator
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30 x 42cm, Edition of 50, Screenprint
Medium: Screenprint
Edition size: 50
Year: 2006
Size: H 30cm x W 42cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
Last Auction: September 2021
Value Trend:
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
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Meaning & Analysis
Banksy's Napalm (Serpentine edition) (2006) is a screen print from a special edition of 50. It reworks Nick Ut's "The Terrors of War" photo, showing Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald holding a young girl whose village was napalmed. The piece satirizes corporations, transforming the original's war imagery into an unsettling ambiguity.
Napalm is undoubtedly one of Banksy’s most powerful, hard-hitting works, cementing his position as a pioneering political contemporary artist. Napalm is a mostly monochromatic screen print in three colours. The work references a photograph taken during the Vietnam War, showing a nine year-old-girl (Kim Phuc) running from the horror of a Napalm blast. The moment was captured by photographer Nick Ut. On this print, Banksy took the photograph as his context for creating a disarming juxtaposition – we have two supposedly friendly American icons of consumerism (Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse), smiling as they lead the terrorised girl away from a disaster. This artwork is a quintessential and especially strong formulation of Banksy’s critique of the military-industrialist complex, linking violent conflict and capitalism. This is also demonstrated in other works like Bomb Hugger and Happy Choppers.
Renowned British street artist, Banksy, is the enigmatic figure behind some of the most subversive works in the Urban Art scene. Despite his anonymity, the artists' disruptive stunts have not only gained him notoriety, but they have vocalised his stance on many social and political issues. As seen with the likes of Girl With Balloon and Napalm, Banksy uses his distinctive stencil technique to produce thought-provoking commentaries on challenging themes. The showcase of rebellion that lines his work has caused his secondary market value to soar in recent years, propelling him to the top of the Urban Art scene.
