{"id":358483,"date":"2026-03-21T22:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T22:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/358483\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T22:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T22:57:21","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-anonymity-in-art-the-unmasking-of-banksy-and-ferrante-should-stop-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/358483\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian view on anonymity in art: the \u2018unmasking\u2019 of Banksy and Ferrante should stop | Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, contemporary art\u2019s worst-kept secret was exposed when street artist Banksy was revealed to be 52-year-old Robin Gunningham, thanks to an 8,000-word investigation by Reuters<\/a>. This would have been big news had the Mail on Sunday<\/a> not got there first nearly two decades ago. Still, it made headlines.<\/p>\n

The previous week, thousands of book lovers expressed their grief at the announcement <\/a>on X of the death of Italian novelist Elena Ferrante, supposedly by her translator Ann Goldstein. In fact, it was the work of infamous Italian hoaxer Tommaso Debenedetti<\/a>, who\u00a0had set up an account in Goldstein\u2019s name, and who pulled the same trick<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

Banksy and Ferrante share the paradoxical distinction of being the most famous anonymous artists today. Ten years ago, Ferrante was subjected to a\u00a0similar expos\u00e9<\/a> when an Italian journalist went through her finances and concluded that she must be an Italian translator. Earlier theories have posited various writers and publishers, that she is a man or even a group of men<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A real-life detective story is hard to resist. The gap\u00a0left by the absence of a \u201ctrue\u201d Banksy or Ferrante is\u00a0one that people have been all too keen to fill. But such investigations reveal more about our obsession with fame and authorship than about the artists. Banksy\u2019s lawyer argues that they \u201cviolate the artist\u2019s privacy, interfere with his art and put him in danger\u201d. Ferrante has said that to relinquish her anonymity would be \u201cvery painful\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Banksy, subterfuge was a practical necessity: street art is illegal. But this enigmatic cover has allowed him to mock the art establishment, talk truth to power and become a national treasure (in 2017 Girl With Balloon was voted<\/a> Britain\u2019s favourite artwork). He has also left his mark on the global stage from Palestine in 2005<\/a> to Ukraine in 2022<\/a>. Whether as a protection from prosecution or a highly successful publicity stunt, his anonymity has become integral to the iconoclastic Banksy brand.<\/p>\n

For Ferrante, it is an artistic choice, liberating her from \u201cthe anxiety of notoriety\u201d, as she put it, and the publicity demands of modern publishing. But it is hardly new. Jane Austen, the Bront\u00ebs, Georges Eliot and Sand, all published anonymously or under a male pen name because writing books was considered unladylike. As Virginia Woolf wrote<\/a>: \u201cI would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.\u201d As part of their campaign to rewrite art history, the anonymous feminist collective the Guerrilla Girls<\/a> sign their posters with names of female artists such as Frida Kahlo or Alice Neel.<\/p>\n

True Banksy<\/a> or Ferrante fans do not care about their real identities. On the contrary, they collude in the mystery. Like children believing in Father\u00a0Christmas, we hang on to the idea of Banksy the rebel artist who appears at night and leaves a surprise in the morning. Similarly, we admire the purity of a novelist who writes without public recognition. Ferrante\u2019s fiction feels so intimate because there is no \u201cworld-famous author\u201d.<\/p>\n

Such radical self-effacement is rare in a culture of exposure and celebrity. An artist\u2019s decision to remain anonymous should be respected. Creativity is one of the last great human mysteries. The work must be allowed to speak for itself. As Banksy has said<\/a>: \u201cIf you want to say something and have people\u00a0listen then you have to wear a mask.\u201d His\u00a0mask is his art \u2013 let\u2019s not destroy it.<\/p>\n

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, contemporary art\u2019s worst-kept secret was exposed when street artist Banksy was revealed to be 52-year-old Robin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-358483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}