This Banksy Painting Owned By Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus Could Sell For $6.3 Million
The pop-punk legend’s original Banksy work is set to fetch big bucks at an upcoming Sotheby’s sale in London.
Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus is preparing to part ways with an original Banksy oil painting that’s expected to bring between $3.8 and $6.3 million at an upcoming Sotheby’s auction in London.
The 2005 work, titled Crude Oil (Vettriano) , is a satirical 21st-century interpretation of Scottish painter Jack Vettriano’s 1992 work The Singing Butler, which depicts of a dancing couple alongside their butler. In Banksy’s trademark style, the anonymous pop artist reimagined the painting, which found wide popularity as an art poster in Britain, with a sinking oil liner and hazmat-suited figures in the background, providing a heavy-handed commentary on capitalism’s role in environmental pollution.
Sotheby’s has more on the history of Crude Oil (Vettriano) and how it fits into the artist’s catalog:
For his first conventional gallery exhibition in 2005—now regarded as a milestone in the artist’s career—Banksy took canonical works of art as the inspiration for a series of fully painted “remixes.” Crude Oil (Vettriano) was hung in a disused shop on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill where it was on prominent view to passers-by in the street. Its prime position set the tone for the exhibition, which included three other paintings: a wilted, bloomless version of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers; a take on Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks in which a topless Union Jack boxer-wearing yob has smashed the late-night bar’s glass window; and Show Me the Monet, a satirical riff on Claude Monet’s view of the Japanese footbridge in his water garden at Giverny.
In all of these hijacked traditional oil paintings, Banksy powerfully tackles relevant issues and formulates sharp social commentaries through one recognizable image—but with a twist. By also featuring Vettriano alongside Van Gogh and Monet in his debut exhibition, staged in a more traditional setting, when cultural institutions would not remotely entertain the thought of hanging the Scottish artist’s canvases on their walls, Banksy questions the rigidity of the art world and its taste makers.
The birth of Hoppus’s Banksy fandom dates back to 2011 street art exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where a Banksy installation stopped Hoppus his wife, Skye, “dead in their tracks,” per Sotheby’s. But it wasn’t until they relocated to London shortly thereafter that Hoppus had the chance to acquire Crude Oil.
“We loved this painting since the moment we saw it,” Hoppus said in a statement. “Unmistakably Banksy, but different. We bought it because we loved it. It’s borne witness to our family over these past dozen years. It hung over the table in London where we ate breakfast and our son did his homework. It hung in our living room in Los Angeles. It’s seen laughter and tears and parties and arguments. Our son has grown up in front of it. This painting has meant so much to us and been such an amazing part of our lives, and now I’m excited for it to be out there in the world, seen by as many as possible. Go get ‘em. Godspeed.”
Hoppus has specific plans for the money generated from Crude Oil’s sale. Part of the proceeds will go towards expanding his family’s collection with works younger artists. “Coming back to punk rock, one aspect of the community I always hold dear is, if you get lucky enough to gain success, you bring your friends with you,” Hoppus said. “Larger bands bring smaller bands on tour. We support one another from within. I want to take some of the money from the sale of this painting and use it to buy works from younger, upcoming artists. We were lucky enough to find Crude Oil in our lives, and it’ll help us support more art and artists. I want to be a fucking Medici.”
A portion of the funds will also benefit two charities that are close to the Hoppus family: Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and their Child Life Program, and Cedars Sinai Haematology Oncology Research. In light of the recent devastation in their home city of Los Angeles, they will also use some of the proceeds to continue their donations to the California Fire Foundation. Crude Oil (Vettriano) hits the block at Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale on March 4 in London.
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