Trolleys (Color), 2007
Edition: 750 signed
‘We can’t do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.’
Trolley Hunters is the perfect incarnation of Banksy’s distinctive marriage of street art, graffiti and satire. Featuring three prehistoric men in a desert, the atmosphere of Trolley Hunters is both eerie and lighthearted. Holding various weapons, the three men pictured are poised to attack. The targets of their attack are, in typical Banksy fashion, trolleys – or shopping carts. The poignancy of the resulting work is twofold; firstly in its timeless critique of capitalism, and secondly in its unique and unexpected resonance today. With Trolleys, Banksy offers the viewer a provoking satire about the impact of consumerism on the ability of modern men to provide for themselves. Trolleys cleverly mocks contemporary society by suggesting that, isolated in cities, with no way of growing or catching our own food, we depend on the products offered by giant supermarkets to survive.
Trolleys (White), 2006
Edition: 150 signed, 500 unsigned
This artwork also illustrates the hunters’ lack of common sense as, instead of searching for edible goods, they are targeting the empty symbol of consumerism. The men holding weapons also suggest to the viewer that these primitive folks might compete violently with one another for food as they might in the stereotypical, post-apocalyptic scene at the supermarket in any Hollywood film about the end of society. Or, more typically, the scenes of people rushing through the doors of major retail stores for Black Friday.
Banksy used the trolley at various occasions, including in the iconic mural Shop Till You Drop he realized in London in 2011.
Trolley Hunters, 2006
Oil and emulsion on canvas
137×214 cm (53 7/8 x 84 1/4 inches)
Sotheby’s New-York, 18 November 2021
USD 6,698,400
The trolley, comic in its incongruity, nods to our consumer society’s predilection for, and reliance on, highly processed, branded packaged food products, and our inability to fend for ourselves. Grouped like antelope in a field, the barren nature of the landscape in which we find these alien carts nods to our willingness to ship foods and other commodities all over the planet to be picked up whenever convenient by the consumer in the aisles of big chain supermarkets. With sardonic wit, Banksy juxtaposes his trolleys with a trio of Neanderthal hunter-gatherers, thereby shining a critical light on how far we as human beings have deviated from our base instincts, and abilities.
RELEASE HISTORY
Trolleys was first released in 2006 by Modern Multiples of Los Angeles as an edition of 500 unsigned white prints (of which only 100 were printed and went on sale) to mark the opening of Banksy’s iconic Barely Legal, in Los Angeles, in October 2006. Trolleys is part of Banksy’s Barely Legal Set, a series of six prints: Trolleys, Applause, Festival, Sale Ends, Morons and Grannies, each of which was sold for $500 a piece.
In 2007, Trolleys was re-released by Pictures on Walls in three different formats: 750 signed prints in color (blue and yellow), 500 unsigned (black and white), and 150 signed (black and white). The original of Trolleys is a large scale work on canvas that was exhibited for the first time at Barely Legal.
Trolleys original, exhibited at Barely Legal, Los Angeles, 2006
The edition of 500 unsigned prints of Trolleys (White) is split between 400 released through Pictures on Walls, and the slight variant of 100 printed by Modern Multiples and sold at the Barely Legal exhibition in LA. The LA Edition differs slightly to the later UK release, as it was printed on a cream-colored paper, and one of the hunters possesses a different weapon.
Trolleys (Bethlehem Edition)
Trolleys (Bethlehem Edition), 2007
Edition: 28 signed
Edition: 28 signed
Trolleys (Bethlehem Edition) is a special edition of 28 signed prints printed on end paper, the packaging that the proper art paper comes in (“sort of like when the kids play with the box instead of the toy.”) It was released at Banksy’s Santa’s Ghetto show in Bethlehem in December 2007 and was only available to those who visited the exhibition.
DESCRIPTION
Trolleys, Trolley Hunters
Year: 2006
Medium: Screen-print in colors on Arches wove paper
Size: 56×76 cm (22×30 inches)
Publisher: Pictures on Walls
Editions
Trolleys: 150 signed, 500 unsigned
Trolleys (Color): 750 signed
Trolleys (LA Edition): 100 unsigned, 6 signed Printer’s Proofs (PP)
Trolleys (Bethlehem Edition): 28 signed
AUCTION RESULTS
Updated as of 30 June 2022
1. Trolleys (Color)
Trolleys (Color), 2007
Signed in pencil, lower right
Numbered 496/750 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Sotheby’s online, 26 April 2022
GBP 40,820 / USD 50,803
Trolleys (Color), 2007
Signed in pencil, lower right
Numbered 465/750 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Sotheby’s online, 17 September 2021
GBP 69,300 / USD 96,327
Trolleys (Color), 2007
Signed in pencil, lower right
Numbered 623/750 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong, 20 April 2021
GBP 44,388 / USD 61,700
Trolleys (Color), 2007
Signed in pencil, lower right
Numbered 41/750 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Christie’s online, 1 April 2021
GBP 52,500 / USD 72,450
2. Trolleys (unsigned)
Trolleys (LA Edition), 2006
Numbered 62/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower right
Numbered 62/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower right
Sotheby’s online, 26 April 2022
GBP 50,000 / USD 67,000
Trolleys (unsigned), 2006
Numbered 195/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower right
Christie’s online, 1 April 2021
GBP 35,000 / USD 48,300
Trolleys (LA Edition), 2006
Numbered 51/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower right
Artnet Auctions, 7 April 2021
GBP 41,439 / USD 57,600
3. Trolleys (signed)
Trolleys (signed), 2006
Signed in pink crayon, within the design, lower right
Signed in pink crayon, within the design, lower right
Numbered 51/150 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower right
Artcurial, 28 June 2022
GBP 58,687 / USD 72,185
Trolleys (signed), 2006
Signed and dated in orange, lower right
Signed and dated in orange, lower right
Numbered 77/150 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower right
Tate Ward Auctions, 7 December 2021
GBP 50,000 / USD 67,000
