Laugh Now

“Laugh Now But One Day We’ll Be In Charge”

Laugh Now

Year: 2002

Medium: Spray-paint on painted board in three parts

Dimensions: 107.5 x 604.5 cm (42 3/8 x 237 7/8 inches)

 

 

Auction History

Auction House: Bonhams London

Date: 5 February 2008

Price realized:

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Auction House: Phillips New-York

Date: 12 November 2013

Price Realized: USD 485,000

 

 

Laugh Now first appeared in 2002, as commissioned by the Oceans Room nightclub on Morley Street in Brighton, with a 6-meter spray-painting mural showing this monkey visual repeated 10 times…

[LAUGH NOW – WALL AND PIECE]

Banksy’s work of the past two decades has drawn a litany of both praise and controversy, and nowhere is his simultaneous appeal and notoriety more present than in Laugh Now. Comprised of his signature means of urban expression, it perfectly encapsulates Banksy’s modus operandi while conjuring the dark thematic elements that underlie such a comic piece. Ten monkeys stand side-by-side, full frontal and unashamed to display their sandwich-board messages: “Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge.” The spare black spray paint upon the bleached white board lends the normally mischievous primates a sinister air, their expressions eliminated in a hyper-saturation of darkness. Banksy’s history as a street artist and his efforts to conceal his identity make his artistic figures his only interactive surrogates. Bearing this in mind, the monkeys upon the panel not only assume an anarchistic quality—promising full revenge upon their rise to power—but also make for a fascinating study into the future of street art.