“Liberté, Égalité, Cable TV”: An Analysis of Banksy’s Adaptation of Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps
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2020-07-09
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en
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This bachelor thesis aims to answer the question of how the artistic dialogue set up by Banksy’s stencil Untitled (Paris, 2018) with Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801), can be understood in its political context. Through its artistic dialogue with David’s work, Banksy’s stencil not only seems to refer to Napoleon, but to the history of Bonapartist leaders. However, Banksy does not idealise them like David, but instead portrays them as figures without any (political) vision. Because of the larger context of the series, this blindness can be related to issues in France surrounding immigration. Moreover, Banksy seems to criticise the role of the media in this political debate, and not only because he believes that it influences people, but also because it distracts them from uniting like protesters did in 1968.
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