Gauntlet Gallery — Banksy Prints
Festival (Destroy Capitalism) (Signed Artist Proof)
Work Summary & Collector Notes
A grey-toned screenprint that reworks the classic "March of Progress" evolution-of-man image: instead of evolving upward, a line of casually dressed festival-goers (including a woman pushing a stroller and a child) queues at a merchandise stall on the right, where a vendor hawks a bright red t-shirt printed "DESTROY CAPITALISM" beneath a small yellow smiley sun. The visual punchline is that anti-capitalist rebellion has itself been packaged, branded, and sold back to the crowd as festival merch.
Collector notes: Edition; saved release record states an edition size of 56. Edition-specific signature, numbering, and stamp details were not stated in the saved release record. Verify signing and numbering against a documented example of this edition.
Why It Matters
The print captures one of Banksy's sharpest and most self-aware ideas: that dissent is easily commodified, and that even slogans of revolt become products the moment they are profitable. By staging it as a literal queue toward a merch table at a festival, Banksy implicates the very counterculture audience that buys his own work, a piece of pointed irony that gives the image lasting bite. It sits squarely within his Capitalism and Consumerism and Protest and Subversion concerns and previews the satirical logic he would later push to its extreme with stunts like Gross Domestic Product.
Collector Perspective
This is an Artist Proof from a small edition of 56, hand-signed, which places it among the scarcer and more desirable tiers of Banksy's printed output, well below the unsigned editions in supply. Signed examples and APs carry a premium over signed-numbered prints from the main run, and the modest edition size means few examples circulate at any given time.
Historical Context
Produced in 2007, during the period when Banksy was transitioning from a street artist into a major art-market force, the print parodies Rudolph Zallinger's iconic 1965 "March of Progress" diagram of human evolution. The festival setting reflects the mid-2000s UK music-festival culture in which Banksy himself was active (he produced festival imagery and worked around events of that era), and the image's irony, selling "Destroy Capitalism" as a commodity, mirrors his own escalating commercial visibility at exactly the moment his prices were beginning to climb.
Documented Release Details
- Object type
- Editioned screenprint
- Release date
- 2007
- Release-date note
- Catalog-listed release year from the saved secondary record; primary release-page confirmation remains pending.
- Medium and materials
- Screen Print.
- Edition details
- Edition; saved release record states an edition size of 56.
- Signature and marks
- Edition-specific signature, numbering, and stamp details were not stated in the saved release record. Verify signing and numbering against a documented example of this edition.
Documented History and Meaning
History note: This page treats Banksy's broader career as background context, not proof that this specific edition belongs to any single exhibition or event. Release-level facts here come from a saved secondary catalog record.
Meaning / interpretation: Read as documented context rather than stated intent: Produced in 2007, during the period when Banksy was transitioning from a street artist into a major art-market force, the print parodies Rudolph Zallinger's iconic 1965 "March of Progress" diagram of human evolution. This is an interpretive reading of the release context, not a statement of the artist's intent for this specific work. This interpretive note follows the cited artist or publisher context.
Release context: The saved catalog lists 2007.
Authentication, Presentation and Provenance
- Original presentation
- Original packaging or presentation was not documented in the release sources reviewed.
- Authentication note
- Compare the support, dimensions, edition number, and signature against a documented example of this edition. Gauntlet Gallery does not authenticate works purchased from third parties.
- Provenance note
- Edition origin is attributed in the saved record to the release source named in the saved record. That does not establish the ownership history of an individual copy: retain the original invoice, reseller or gallery paperwork, labels, correspondence, and condition photographs.
Sources and Verification
Verification status: Secondary catalog snapshot; artist-level context added
- Banksy — Wikipedia · reference encyclopedia · Accessed 2026-07-13 · General artist-level biographical and career reference.
- Banksy (Q133600) — Wikidata · reference knowledge base · Accessed 2026-07-13 · Structured identifier used for the artist across catalog metadata.
FAQ
What does this print depict?
It reworks the famous evolution-of-man 'March of Progress' image: a line of festival-goers, including a woman with a stroller and a child, queues toward a merchandise stall where a vendor sells a red 'DESTROY CAPITALISM' t-shirt, satirizing how rebellion gets sold as merch.
What is the edition size?
The edition is 56.
Is this print signed?
Yes. This is a hand-signed Artist Proof (AP), an out-of-series impression that is generally scarcer and more sought-after than the standard numbered prints.
What medium is it?
It is a screenprint, produced in 2007.
Who is Banksy?
Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist who emerged from Bristol in the early 1990s, known for fast stencil work, dark humour, and anti-capitalist and anti-establishment imagery, much of it published as limited-edition prints.
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