Girl with Balloon

Medium: Spray-paint on canvas
Year: 2003
Dimensions: 40.5 x 40.5 cm (16×16 inches)
Edition: 25

Stencil signed on the overlap
Numbered on the stretcher

With its striking simplicity and raw immediacy, Girl with Balloon, 2003, is one of the most widely recognizable images by the anonymous and world renowned artist Banksy. Unlike the other editioned iterations of this famous motif, the present example belongs to a rare silkscreen edition 25 artist’s proofs. Beating Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire, Constable’s The Hay Wain and Hockney’s A Bigger Splash to the top spot, Banksy’s Girl with Balloon was voted the nation’s favorite artwork in a 2017 poll; a resounding affirmation of the broad and wide reaching popularity of this undeniably iconic and culturally formidable image.

This accolade was further compounded by the dramatic live ‘shredding’ event at Sotheby’s in October 2018 which notoriously turned a Girl with Balloon canvas into Love is in the Bin – a work that dominated headlines the world over, taking the art world by storm and has since been exhibited at the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden and more recently at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. It’s impact on the latter’s visitor numbers was substantial, and further reinforces the power of this image and its mysterious author.

LEFT: BANKSY, GIRL WITH BALLOON, 2006,PRIVATE COLLECTION, ARTWORK: © BANKSY 2021
RIGHT: BANKSY, LOVE IS IN THE BIN, 2006-2018, PRIVATE COLLECTION ,ARTWORK: © BANKSY 2021

Born in Bristol and based in England, Banksy has garnered international acclaim for his distinctive style of satirical street art and graffiti, executed using a technique of stenciling. His work is rich in dark humor and frequently captioned with subversive epigrams that provide poignant and potent commentaries on the social and political aspects of contemporary society. Girl with Balloon depicts a small child rendered in black and white who reaches out towards a bright red, heart-shaped balloon dangling from a string. Like much of Banksy’s work, the image is an ambiguous one, leaving the viewer to decipher whether the girl is reaching out to catch the balloon – a vibrant emblem of childhood delight – or rather has let it slip from her fingers and is watching in anguish as it drifts into oblivion, a metaphor, perhaps, for the inevitable loss of childhood and innocence.

BANKSY’S GIRL WITH BALLOON IN LONDON / ARTWORK: © BANKSY 2021

Composed in spray paint and acrylic on canvas, the motif is based on an original graffiti mural which first appeared in London in 2002. Instantly gettable, Banksy’s graffiti image is a perfect encapsulation of human emotion for the fast-pace of our social media age: it seditiously pokes fun at high-minded art world savoir faire and in doing so appeals to many, for whom it represents a contemporary expression of sanctity, a bright and vivid symbol of hope everlasting. Ultimately, however, Girl with Balloon is the supreme icon within Banksy’s canon of motifs: whether you are for or against him, this image utterly encapsulates the immediacy and controversy surrounding the artist’s mission.

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A contemporary emblem of innocence and hope, Girl with Balloon is one of the limited editions uniquely rendered using a hand-cut stencil by the famed British graffiti artist Banksy. It was created in 2003, a year after the Girl with Balloon—his most legendary and lauded image to date—made its first appearance as a graffiti mural outside Shoreditch shop and later at Southbank with an epitaph ‘There is Always Hope’. Despite its universal resonance, the image depicted in the present work—a girl stenciled in black reaching out towards a red, heart-shaped balloon dangling from a sting—is not without ambiguity. Is the girl reaching out for something she has lost, or has she released a message of love into the world? Such ambivalence is what made Banksy’s works agitating yet powerful, as with all of Banksy’s works, their ultimate meanings always stay with the spectator.

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”

Girl with Balloon not only stands as the purest expression of Banksy’s visual genius as an instantly recognizable and timelessly arresting image, but it has also proved to be an enduring icon of transcendent, multivalent meaning. In 2005, Banksy produced another variant of the motif on the West Bank barrier wall, this time with a bunch of balloons lifting the girl into the sky. In 2014, a version featuring a child with a headscarf was projected onto Nelson’s Column and other global landmarks in support of crisis victims in Syria. In 2018, the fame of Girl with Balloon rose to a new height with an unexpected intervention by the artist during a live auction where the work with the same title was shredded soon after it was sold. As the first artwork in history to have been ‘re-created’ during a live auction, the controversial work was renamed Love is in the Bin (2018) by the artist’s studio Pest Control soon after. In 2021, it was renamed the second time as Girl without Balloon (2021) when it was re-offered at the auction. (A. Shaw, ‘Banksy’s shredded Girl with Balloon renamed and redated—again’, The Art Newspaper, 23 Jan 2024) A motif that perhaps best defines the essence of Banksy’s art with two simple visual elements, Girl with Balloon is a time-tested image that will continue to evolve and touch the hearts of millions.

Auction Results

Girl and Balloon, 2003

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 26 September 2024
Estimated: HKD 7,000,000 – 10,000,000
HKD 8,568,000 / USD 1,100,430

Girl and Balloon (christies.com)

BANKSY (B. 1974)
Girl and Balloon, 2003
Spray paint on canvas
40×40 cm (16×16 inches)
Stenciled ‘BANKSY’ (on the side)
Numbered ‘21⁄25’ (on the stretcher bar)

Girl with Balloon, 2003

Sotheby’s London: 29 June 2021
Estimated: GBP 1,000,000 – 1,500,000
GBP 2,072,000 / USD 2,851,549

Girl with Balloon | British Art Evening Sale: Modern/Contemporary | 2021 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

BANKSY (b. 1974)
Girl with Balloon, 2003
Spray paint on canvas
40.5 x 40.5 cm (16×16 inches)
Stenciled with the artist’s name on the overlap
Numbered 24/25 on the stretcher
This work is number 24 from an edition of 25

Provenance
Kindit Ltd T/AS PYMCA, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in March 2004

Girl and Balloon, 2003

Provenance
Santa’s Ghetto, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2003

Girl and Balloon, 2003

Provenance
Santa’s Ghetto, London (acquired directly from the above in 2003)
Sale: Bonhams, Vision 21, 24 October 2007, lot 247
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 2005

Balloon Girl, 2003
Spray paint on canvas

40.5 x 40.5 cm (15 15/16 x 15 15/16 inches)
Signed, dated and numbered ‘5/25’ in marker pen verso