Flower Thrower (Triptych)

Medium: Screenprint in colors on 1500 micron board
Year: 2019
Size: Flower (74.8 x 55 cm), Thrower (91.8 x 61 cm), Hand (47 x 37.2 cm)
Edition: 300 signed
Publisher: Banksy, Gross Domestic Product

Thrower presents a variation of one of Banksy’s most iconic visuals entitled Love Is In The Air (Flower Thrower). The work shows a man with a bandana over his face frozen in the act of throwing neither a brick nor a Molotov cocktail, but a bouquet of flowers. This image conveys a message of peace. In the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) version, the visual is split into three parts, and presented as a deconstructed tryptic.

Banksy™ Thrower – GrossDomesticProduct

 
As such, the artist is returning to the original techniques of printing, avoiding digital methods of manipulation in order to perfectly recreate the striking marks of the original design. Obviously, it refers directly to artists such as Andy Warhol, who transferred his images directly onto a screen to be reproduced, ushering in a new era for the creation, dissemination, and commodification of art. With its classical stencil led style, the work also pays homage to Banksy’s origins as a street artist, whereby the stencil represents the quickest, most efficient way for the artist to insert his image into the urban environment without getting caught. Revisited and reconceived many times over the years by Banksy, Flower Thrower has become one of the most iconic images from the street art movement and is a motif he revisits often in the same way he does with rats and monkeys.

“As soon as I cut my first stencil, I could feel the power there. I also like the political edge. All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They’ve been used to start revolutions and to stop wars.”

Combining despair and humor, in Thrower (Grey), Banksy presents the image of a young man with his face partially covered by a bandana and base-ball cap, leaning backwards in momentum to detonate a bouquet of flowers. Typical of Banksy’s socially charged imagery, the menacing figure juxtaposed with a symbol of peace and love, demonstrates the artist’s sustained interest in the absurdity of war, as well as the arbitrariness that can derive from unequal power dynamics. While the spraypainted protagonist is armed with blooming plants and nothing else, the forces surrounding him seem to operate heavier weaponry, placing him in a position of immediate danger.

Banksy first used this motif in 2003, when it appeared as graffiti on Jerusalem’s West Bank Wall, that which separates Israel from Palestine, shortly after it was erected. Evoking the 1960s pacific slogan ‘Make Love Not War’, the image has become a symbol of peaceful resistance and an ode to spontaneity. Despite the site-specific context of its iteration on the West Bank Wall, the image represents protest without specifying its target, embodying a hint of the punk ethos of non-conformity and perpetual resistance to authority that is typical of Banksy’s early graffiti works. Following in the footsteps of Keith Haring and Jean Michel-Basquiat, Banksy continues to utilize graffiti as a tool for activism. The motif has been reproduced in multiple formats since first conceived, including two print editions: Love Is In The Air, 2003, and Thrower (Grey), 2019.

 

Auction Results

2025 Sold Twice
Average Price: GBP 123,825 (USD 160,250)
Top Price: GBP 127,000 (USD 171,450) @ Phillips London on 5 June 2025
2024 Sold Once
Selling Price: CHF 95,000 (USD 105,925 / GBP 83,405) @ Koller Zurich on 20 June 2024
2023 Sold 3 Times
Average Price: GBP 156,120 (USD 192,330)
Top Price: GBP 190,500 (USD 237,142) @ Sotheby’s online on 20 April 2023
2022 Sold 5 Times
Average Price: GBP 212,303 (USD 256,220)
Top Price: GBP 277,200 (USD 349,272) @ Sotheby’s online on 26 April 2022
2021 Sold Once
Auction Record Price: GBP 330,000 (USD 458,700) @ Tate Ward Auction on 24 March 2021
2020 Sold Once
Selling Price: GBP 237,500 (USD 313,600) @ Tate Ward Auctions on 14 October 2020

 

2026 Auction Results

Christie’s online: 31 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 177,800 / USD 237,240

BANKSY
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019
The set of three screenprints in colors on recycled card
Signed and numbered 207/300 in pencil on the left panel
Additionally numbered on the central and right panels on the reverse
Co-published by the artist and Gross Domestic Product, London

2025 Auction Results

Phillips London: 5 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 127,000 / USD 171,450
BANKSY
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019

Screenprinted triptych in colours, on recycled card

Signed and numbered 245/300 in pencil on the front of the Flower panel
Further numbered in pencil on the reverse of the other two panels
Contained in the original artist’s specified gilded wooden frames

Phillips London: 23 January 2025
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 120,650 / USD 149,050

BANKSY
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019
Screenprinted triptych in colors on recycled card
Signed and numbered 227/300 in pencil on the front of the Flower panel
Further numbered in pencil on the reverse of the other two panels
Contained in the original artist’s specified gilded wooden frames

2024 Auction Results

Koller Zurich: 20 June 2024
Estimated: CHF 100,000 – 180,000
CHF 95,000 / USD 105,925 / GBP 83,405

BANKSY (Bristol 1974–lives and works in England)
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019
Color screenprint on recycled cardboard
268/300. Signed in pencil on the lower left of the left board: BANKSY
Also numbered on the reverse of the center and left boards

2023 Auction Results

Sotheby’s New-York: 24 October 2023
Estimated: USD 120,000 – 180,000
USD 152,400

BANKSY (b.1974)
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019
Screenprinted triptych in colors on Micron board
Signed in pencil on the left panel and numbered 283/300
Numbered on the central and right panels on the verso

Sotheby’s online: 20 April 2023
Estimated: GBP 130,000 – 180,000
GBP 190,500 / USD 237,142

BANKSY
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019
Screenprinted triptych on Micron board
Signed in pencil on the left panel
Numbered 204/300, also numbered on the central and right panels verso

Sotheby’s London: 2 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 120,000 – 180,000
GBP 152,400 / USD 187,452

BANKSY
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019
Screenprinted triptych on Micron board
Signed and numbered 118/300

2022 Auction Results

Koller Zurich: 1 December 2022
Estimated: CHF 180,000 – 240,000
CHF 187,195 / USD 200,299 / GBP 166,916

BANKSY
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019
Color screenprint on recycled cardboard
Signed on the left sheet in pencil lower left
Numbered 224/300 on the reverse of each sheet.

Christie’s online: 21 September 2022
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 250,000
GBP 189,000 / USD 226,800

BANKSY
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019
Signed in pencil on the left panel
Numbered 219/300, also numbered on the central and right panels verso

Phillips London: 15 September 2022
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 214,200 / USD 247,687

Thrower (Grey), 2019
Signed and numbered 211/300 in pencil on the front of the Flower panel
Further numbered in pencil on the reverse of the other two panels

Sotheby’s online: 17 August 2022
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 214,200 / USD 257,040

BANKSY
Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey), 2019
Signed in pencil on the left panel
Numbered 243/300, also numbered on the central and right panels verso

Sotheby’s London: 26 April 2022
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 277,200 / USD 349,272

BANKSY (b. 1974)
Thrower (Grey), 2019
Screenprinted triptych on micron board
Signed in pencil on the left panel, numbered 245/300
Also numbered on the central and right panels verso

2021 Auction Results

Tate Ward Auctions: 24 March 2021
Estimated: GBP 135,000 – 165,000
GBP 330,000 / USD 458,700
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THROWER

BANKSY (British 1974-)
Thrower (Grey), 2019
Triptych, screenprint in colors on 1500 micron board
Signed and numbered from an edition of 300 in pencil to the Flower panel recto
Numbered from an edition of 300 to the Thrower panel verso
Numbered from an edition of 300 to the Hand panel verso

2020 Auction Results

Tate Ward Auctions: 14 October 2020
Estimated: GBP 135,000 – 165,000
GBP 237,500 / USD 313,600

BANKSY (British 1974-)
‘Thrower (Grey)’, 2019
Triptych, screenprint in colors on 1500 micron board
Signed and numbered from an edition of 300 in pencil to the Flower panel recto
Numbered from an edition of 300 to the Thrower panel verso
Numbered from an edition of 300 to the Hand panel verso
Published by the Artist