King Robbo painted over Banksy
King Robbo painted over Banksy
Britain’s most notorious graffiti artist may be accustomed to art world adulation but Banksy’s latest work has landed him in an old fashioned street fight.
The aerosol painter from Bristol stands accused of disrespecting a graffiti legend by modernising a 24-year-old work by “King Robbo” in Camden, North London.
On Christmas Day, a few days after Banksy’s latest spray paint spree, Robbo responded in kind by obliterating the artist’s work with 3ft high silver letters spelling out his name.
Banksy, whose real name is unknown, has become one of Britain’s most popular artists. A compendium of his work, mostly painted on the side of buildings, is the world’s bestselling art book.
Around 300,000 people also attended a Banksy exhibition in Bristol this year but not everyone appreciated his latest effort beneath on the bank of Regent’s canal.
One graffiti aficionado, calling himself Sigma, wrote a blog entry decrying the destruction of a piece of street art history.
“Now I like Banksy’s stuff and I like this but the cost is too high,” he said. “Fair enough over the years this piece got pretty dogged and ‘vandalized’ but for the most part it was still visible history… long live King Robbo.”
According to graffiti folklore this spat is not the first disagreement between Banksy and King Robbo. The 1980s pioneering vandal recounted a story in London Handstyles, a book on graffiti published in 2009, in which he claimed to have confronted the now-famous artist.
“I was out one night with a load of old writers and got introduced to Banksy,” King Robbo said. “He asked what I wrote and I told him, he cockily replied ”never heard of you” so I slapped him and said, ”You may not of heard of me but you will never forget me.’”
Banksy, whose works have sold for as much as £288,000 at auction, painted a series of images last week on walls under Camden Street Bridge, directly behind the British Transport Police building in Camden Town.
Robbo apparently took umbrage at the manipulation of his mural, accessible only by water, that had been in place since 1985. He came out of retirement four days later according to a post on the Flickr photography website.
“Down the canal in a wet suit on Christmas morning. ho ho ho,” he wrote below a picture of his artistic retribution.
Short URL: http://puregraffiti.com/art/?p=3408
Posted by Fyer11
on 12:09 pm. Filed under Got Fame, Hip Hop x Graffiti.
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pfffffffffffffffffff
your my fuckin favorite tag artist!!!!!!!!!!
lol so where's the bit of banksy, it says ROBBO and then he went over himself with KING ROBBO
wtf
but i wouldn;t mind more battle reports
im making my post name on these blakhell
i see now
Banksy derserved to get slapped, I dont care how good you THINL you are, this guy is a legend and that piece derserved to be respected.
If ROBBO went into "retirement" he shouldnt be getting all pissy about this type of thing.
After all, there are only a certain amount of walls to be painted, and if he's not playing the game anymore, then he's gonna have to expect some of his shit to get painted over.
And looking at the second picture, it looks like tons of other people went over him already.
What a crybaby bitch.
I wouldnt say there is such thing as "retirement" for any graffiti writers. Its a lifestyle till u expires in peace. But then again, the main point is Banksy should have covered the whole background instead of leaving it expose bits of Robbo's letters because it cld've send a wrong message that he is inviting a beef. Some writers are like that especially when a piece is being done illegally and left there for quite sometimes. Theres unspoken rule that you should paint with respect.
ahah im gunna cry cause someone did what is to be done if your better and you can burn it………………..then die old or not
ive seen many of my old 19 year old shit smash by toys at least it wasnt a toy smashing boo fuckin hoo
love jaxistwentyone
What
he cockily replied never heard of you, so i slaped him! lmao
Not only would i have slapped his face, i would have kicked him in the teeth, banksy or not, nobody has the right to fuck with history.
and King Robbo, though in or out of retirement, also has the right to get pised off about some fake ass bomber, bustin his shit.
banksy, does graffiti… we know this, but i dont think of him the same as i would think of any other graffiti artist, because he definately crossed a line with his works, into a realm of more fine arts.
yes he does graffiti, illegally , but a graffiti artist he's nowhere even remotely close.
and yeah, everyone that knows anything knows several things.
1. dont go over people that were probably inspiration to start writing yourself.
2. theres a line between graffiti and art, cross it and dead men tell no tales.
3. respect who deserves it (long live king robbo),and cross toys for days.
so in conclusion, what did we learn?
robbo shouldda slapped a bit harder.
im not backing up banks or anything, (fuck him he has no letters and makes all his stencils from a computer) but the king robbo looked super dissed before banksy came and did that dumb stencil shit… just saying…
its sad. poor robbo. you can search "banksy" and not see any robbo ref. but type "robbo" and there's is nothing that doesn't involve banksy. robbo owes banksy a thank you. . . for resurrecting his lame ass name.
who the f—-ck is banksy nothing but a trained chimp with a stencil kit.
also. the phrase "king of what exactly?" comes to mind…
eh. doesn't seem all that news-worthy to me. i'm glad it got Robbo back into action, at least for one night.
i believe that banksy knew exactly what he was saying by going over the piece like that, especially since in the second picture you can see the painter rolling up robbos piece
and yeah banksy declared war on robbo and robbo got him back
so another day goes by in the graffiti world
Probably not the real Robbo anyway. Second one has none of the flair of the original artist. Sad whoever did the second Robbo is the one who totally destroyed the Robbo.
hmmm.yal stop trippin banksy more famous then this foo robbo 4reAl google tht s**t nd see who is more known nd git over it…if a person goes in retirement a new artist has the ryte to go over him so all yal p**sies stop kryin it wasnt ur s**t!
Robbo's style is weak, the old piece looked like the amateur b.s that junior high school losers do when they're starting out. the new piece looks even less like a 'master' of any sort was involved.
banksy is shit stencil is shit period
it was done way back before this imposter fool come along
ay everyones got their beef with somebody who gets up but id go over someone too if they slapped me haha you noe disrespect me expect to be disrespected…
who cares everyones got beef legend as if there are no legends only pioneers toy nd pioneers got beef banksy smashed on robbo n robbo retaliated thats graff leave it be
f*ck that. robbo can suck banksy's dick
STUFF king robbo who isnt even the freakin king, he has no wright to slap banksy, banksy is the bomb digity and all u freaks who think king robbo is good and banksy deserved what he got u can get stuffed to. Besides king robbo is supposed to be a toy thats why they mada a movie bout him, TOY STORY!!! LONG LIVE BANKSY!!!
YOU MUG what do you know about street art banksy art is good but its nothing but rip off art the name flec springs to mind we can all rip off other peoples work and change a few things and call it our own how original !!!
banksy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THATS ALL THAT NEEDS TO BE SAID
Anyone who goes over a 24 year old piece even if it is whack deserves a
A hell of a lot more than a slap
id buy robbo"s shit…id burn banksy"s…the end.
i agree with fazer! its a timeless piece of art which alot of people admired worldwide as it was the oldest piece in london.
they should get together and do a piece together and make up and move on.
Robbo's work was already trashed, people had been taging over it for years, the only reason he and the rest of the street painting community got all pissy is because it was Banksy and they thought they could get some publicity going, this is fine by the the way but to hide the fact behind falls claims of "graffiti code" is pathetic!!
P.S. Get well soon Robbo
Are half of you retarded?
Robbo is "king" because he was the first person to get into train-yards and spray almost every fucking train.
He was always the first in at each new location before any toy or banksy and if you toys knew your graffiti history then you'd know robbo.
If you can interpret graffiti you would clearly see banksy declaring war on robbo as robbo goes into retirement, cheap fucking move but robbo rightly wont stand for it.
Banksy can't spray free-hand at all, only stencil from a computer. Thats fucking weak. Stenciling is one thing but calling yourself a graffiti artist and not being able to hold a spray can is another.
I have Banksys book, seen lots of his work with my own eyes and followed him closely.
The closer I look, I find that Banksy has copied many artists such as the rats that came from france. not originally his.
I also find his semi-political quotes on his pieces have no real relevance and people chuckle at them and think theres a deeper meaning when theres really not.
When it comes to graffiti ask any old school, robbo is the shit. You should all give yourself a slap if you dont know him. I have a 5 year old brother who can spray stencils printed from a computer.
FYI: the piece banksy sprayed over was the oldest visible piece of graffiti in london, sprayed when banksy was learning to tie his stencilling shoelaces.
I used to have alot of respect for Banksy work. until i saw the channel 4 documentry.
To paint over another mans art in the way he did, was a total disgrace!!!
I have now got ZERO respect for Banksy!!!!
I had never heard of ROBBO until the TV thing, but what did strike me was one of these men had a real talent and one was a total FRAUD RIP OFF MERCHANT:
ROBBO a true GENIUS all his own work!!!!
Banksy a man who copies others stencils FRAUD!!!!!
Long live king robbo . Banksey’s just a country fool with no respect for the past .stencil king and media darling the only thing that’s come hood of the war is robbo Is back and doing it for real .
King Robbo amazing and ledgendary graffiti artist just doing what he loves he never uses stencils unless to mock the work of banksy he can paint a master pice with just a bottle of spray and imagination and just at the hight of his carrer when his dream was coming true he landed himself in a coma and probabbly not his fault it was either a bunch of yobs or even some banksy followers who knows
Banksy only uses stencils and is disrespectedd in the graffiti world yet applauded and recognised in the world of street art he has his way and yet he sometimes coppies or manipulates work of others he is still a very talented man but his work should not be protected by a sheet of plastic because life and artwork should be the same living on the edge not knowing if and when it will all fall apart.
I think both artists are equallas and that they should both be treated with respect yet what banksy did to that memorable piece of work is horrific and distasteful and yet beautiful.
I no this probablly dosnt make sense but oh well im just a 13 year old kid expressing my views. >_<