'Modified Oil Painting #21' by Banksy, 2005
Rare, original, limited production postcard from Banksy's "Crude Oils" show, London, UK.
4 x 6 Inches
10.2 x 15.2 Centimeters
8 x 10 x 0.8 Inches (framed)
Offset lithograph printed glossy postcard featuring Banksy's 'Guantanamo Detainee'.
Open Edition (Sold Out).
Artwork title printed on reverse.
Excellent original condition.
*Note: Float-framed in UV-protective glass and black MDF frame molding.
ARTIST BIO
Banksy’s 'Crude Oils' was a landmark exhibition held in London in 2005, staged as a provocative intervention into the conventions of traditional fine art. Rather than presenting original paintings in a neutral gallery context, Banksy infiltrated and reworked existing oil paintings—many in the style of pastoral landscapes, seascapes, and classical portraiture—by inserting jarring contemporary elements. Polluted rivers, traffic cones, riot police, shopping carts, oil spills, and surveillance devices intrude upon otherwise serene compositions, collapsing the distance between romanticized art history and modern social reality. The exhibition’s title itself is a double entendre, referencing both the literal medium of oil painting and the “crude” political and environmental realities Banksy sought to expose.
The Crude Oils exhibition marked a significant moment in Banksy’s transition from street artist to institutional disruptor. By appropriating traditional paintings—rather than producing new canvases from scratch—Banksy directly challenged ideas of originality, authorship, and cultural value. The works functioned as visual détournements, using humor and absurdity to critique consumerism, environmental destruction, war, and the sanitization of history. Despite their playful appearance, the altered paintings carried an unmistakable urgency, underscoring how contemporary crises persist beneath the polished surfaces of culture and tradition.
The accompanying 'Crude Oils' postcard set extends the exhibition’s ethos into a widely accessible, collectible format. Featuring reproductions of key works from the show, the postcards democratize the imagery, allowing Banksy’s critique to circulate beyond the gallery walls. Like much of Banksy’s output, the postcard set blurs the line between art object and ephemera, reinforcing the artist’s belief that powerful ideas should be reproducible, portable, and embedded in everyday life. Together, the exhibition and postcard set stand as enduring examples of Banksy’s ability to merge satire, political commentary, and art-historical reference into a single, sharply resonant body of work.