E xhibited in Banksy’s first, landmark gallery exhibition, Crude Oils: A Gallery of Re-Mixed Masterpieces: Vandalism and Vermin, in October 2005, Kate Moss (2005) is an exceptionally rare canvas work by the artist, one of his limited experimentations with screenprint and the fifth of an exclusive edition of five. Famous for his stenciled graffiti works that appear on streets around the world, British-born Banksy has amassed a legion of fans for his distinctive oeuvre, defined by dark humour, satire, and his tongue-in-cheek political commentary. With Kate Moss, Banksy turns to the masters of Western art history, making a series of iconic oil paintings the site of his vandalism. A 21st Century take on an archetypal masterpiece, Banksy reformulates Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, replacing the face of the era-defining American actress, model and singer, with that of British supermodel Kate Moss, an instantly discernible figure from popular culture, her face definitive of the turn of the century.

Paying homage to arguably one of the most famous artists of the 20th century, Pop artist Andy Warhol, Banksy combines the face of Kate Moss with the hair and trademark beauty spot of Marilyn, adopting the exact bright aesthetic and composition of his predecessor’s influential Marilyn Monroe series. Juxtaposing the warm honey hues of Marilyn’s hair with the striking cyan of the background, Kate Moss is expressive of Warhol’s mastery of colour, wonderfully embodied by Banksy approximately 40 years later. Using a still from the 1953 movie Niagara, Warhol first featured the image of Marilyn Monroe in his work shortly after her death in 1962, subsequently releasing his well-known screenprint series on the subject in 1967. Embracing popular culture and commercial processes such as printmaking, Warhol appropriated imagery from his environment, his work both reflective of and instrumental in defining American culture. In the same way Andy Warhol and Marilyn Monroe are symbolic of American popular culture in the 1950s and 1960s, Banksy uses the memorable face of Kate Moss to reflect society and culture at the start of the 21st century, a type of historical document reflective of the context in which it was made in 2005. Voted one of the world’s most 100 influential people in 2007 by Time magazine, Moss has appeared in hundreds of magazine covers over the course of her 30 year career, making her an obvious choice for Marilyn’s 21st Century replacement by Banksy. Further, by embracing Warhol as his subject, Banksy makes subtle reference to the Pop artist’s embodiment of consumerism and the hyper-capitalism of 1960s America, which he interrogates further in the exhibition, Crude Oils: A Gallery of Re-Mixed Masterpieces: Vandalism and Vermin.

Crude Oils: A Gallery of Re-Mixed Masterpieces: Vandalism and Vermin at 100 Westbourne Grove in London was a milestone event in the artist’s career, Banksy’s first conventional show in a gallery setting. Amongst its visitors, Banksy included 164 rats in the space, unnerving the audience and creating an almost Surrealist experience where everything was not quite as it seemed. In his series of subversive paintings, the artist hijacks significant masterpieces that would be immediately recognisable to the viewer, disrupting the various scenes with objects and sentiments from our present age.

In doing so, Banksy directly engages with the legacy of Western art history, in a manner not dissimilar to Marcel Duchamp’s infamous interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, L.H.O.O.Q. in 1919, in which the Dada artist drew a moustache and goatee on a postcard reproduction of the work. However, Banksy takes his artistic disruption further, executing his works in the style and technique of their original makers, adopting the screenprint technique typical of Warhol’s process in Kate Moss.

Not only does Banksy appropriate Warhol’s most famous motif, the face of Marilyn Monroe, the artist also places his playful stamp on the works of Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Jack Vettriano and Edward Hopper. Littering Monet’s Impressionist masterpiece of a water garden in Giverny with a traffic cone and partly submerged, upended shopping trolleys, Banksy highlights the reality of our world, dismantling these idealised visions from the past.

Alongside Kate moss and Banksy’s Monet, SHOW ME THE MONET (2005), the artist depicts Van Gogh’s seminal sunflowers in a state of decay; a Renaissance portrait of the Virgin and Child listening to an iPod; and the sculpture of Venus with a traffic cone on her head, taking the audience through a reimagined view of art history.

Banksy’s Kate Moss is an ebullient, rare example from the artist’s oeuvre, executed using screenprint on canvas, strikingly different to the street art interventions which had previously gained him notoriety. Neither the first nor the last to immortalise the great Kate Moss in art—her likeness reproduced by artists such as Marc Quinn, as seen in his arresting golden sculpture, Song of the Siren (2010)—Banksy’s work draws upon past icons of popular culture to create an emblematic image, definitive of 21st century art.

創 作於2005年的《Kate Moss》是限量5版中的第5件，曾於2005年10月、班克斯一鳴驚人的首個畫廊展覽《粗魯油畫：重新合成的傑作：惡意破壞與社會敗類（Crude Oils: A Gallery of Re-Mixed Masterpieces: Vandalism and Vermin）》中展出。藝術家不常以絲網印刷創作，因此本作是班克斯極為珍稀的畫布作品。班克斯出生於英國，以遍佈世界各地街頭的模板塗鴉而聞名於世，而他充滿黑色幽默、挖苦及政治諷刺的標誌性創作手法亦讓他擁有了大量粉絲。在《Kate Moss》中，他轉而向西方藝術史的大師下手，惡西方經典油畫。班克斯以極具時代氣息的流行文化符號，英國超模凱特・摩絲（Kate Moss）的臉孔，取代安迪・沃荷筆下的《瑪麗蓮夢露》，以21 世紀的目光重新演繹了經典大師作品。

班克斯將凱特・摩絲的臉孔與瑪麗蓮夢露的髮型及招牌的美人痣融合在一起，並保留安迪・沃荷原系列中明亮鮮艷的美學及構圖，藉此向這位20世紀最著名的普普藝術大師致敬。班克斯在原作面世的40年後，藉本作完美地體現了沃荷精湛的運色，讓瑪麗蓮夢露溫暖的蜜糖金黃色秀髮與強烈的青藍色背景形成對比，展現出沃荷在用色方面的才華。1962年，瑪麗蓮夢露去世後不久，沃荷以她在1953年電影《飛瀑怒潮》中的劇照作為作品題材，他其後在1967年推出了以瑪麗蓮夢露為主題、舉世聞名的絲網印刷畫作系列。沃荷熱愛流行文化，大膽運用版畫此等商業化的創作模式，以當時社會及文化環境取材，一系列作品既反映並影響著美國文化的發展。

安迪・沃荷與瑪麗蓮夢露分別是1950年代及1960年代美國流行文化的象徵，同樣地，班克斯採用了凱特・摩絲這位21世紀流行文化代表，她令人印象深刻的臉孔令本作成為某種歷史檔案，訴說著本作創作年份（2005年）的社會面貎。凱特・摩絲於2007年獲《時代雜誌》選為全球最具影響力的100位名人之一，而在她30年的事業生涯裡，登上雜誌封面超過數百次，成為班克斯這張代表21世紀的作品中，取代瑪麗蓮夢露的不二之選。此外，班克斯透過這以沃荷為中心的作品系列，輕輕觸及這位普普大師對1960年代美國消費主義及過度資本主義的觀點，並於其後的「粗魯油畫：重新合成的傑作：惡意破壞與社會敗類」展覽中持續探討。

於倫敦西伯恩路（Westbourne Grove）100號舉辦的「粗魯油畫：重新合成的傑作：惡意破壞與社會敗類」展覽，是班克斯首個於傳統畫廊舉辦的展覽，亦是他藝術生涯中一個里程碑。班克斯在展覽空間裡放置了令人不安的164隻老鼠像，為觀眾帶來一個「眼見未為真」近乎超現實的體驗。在他這系列顛覆性的畫作中，藝術家騎劫惡搞了大眾熟悉的經典藝術作品，以現代物件或情感植入原本的場景。班克斯以這樣的手法與西方藝術史中的經典作品對話，與馬塞爾・杜尚1919年重新演繹達文西《蒙羅麗莎》的知名作品《L.H.O.O.Q.》——這位達達主義藝術家為印在明信片上的蒙羅麗莎加上了八字鬍和山羊鬍子——有著異曲同工之妙。但班克斯的藝術性「破壞」更進了一步，甚至原原本本地參照著原作者的風格及手法創作，比如在《凱特・摩斯》中運用沃荷慣用的絲網印刷技術呈現他的作品。

班克斯不只重新演繹「瑪麗蓮夢露」這個沃荷最享負盛名的畫像主題，他亦同樣把玩文森・梵谷、克勞德・莫內、傑克・維特里亞諾愛德華・霍普的作品。班克斯在莫內印象派鉅作的水塘中亂拋垃圾，讓路錐及翻轉的超市手推車在吉維尼的蓮花池中浮浮沈沈，突顯出世界的現實狀況，拆毀過去這些理想化的想像。在《凱特・摩斯》及《給我看莫內》之外，班克斯亦將梵谷極具代表性的向日葵畫成凋謝的模樣，讓文藝復興畫作中的聖母與聖子聽iPod，又在維納斯女神的雕塑頭上加上路錐，帶領觀眾重新想像及檢視藝術歷史。

班克斯在本作中採用了在畫布上絲網印刷的手法創作，與令他聲名大噪的街頭藝術風格截然不同，令本作成為藝術家眾多作品中一件珍貴罕見而熱情洋溢的傑作。班克斯不是第一個、也不是最後一個以藝術手法捕捉凱特・摩絲所代表的時代精神的藝術家——馬克・奎恩亦在他迷人的金色雕像作品《Song of the Siren》（2010）中重現了這位超模——班克斯以過往流行文化的標誌性人物為題，創作出這幅極具代表性的作品，為21世紀的藝術寫下新定義。