Critical Review
Napalm is one of Banksy’s most powerful screen prints in colour in an edition of 150, released in 2004 and signed by the artist.
Napalm is undoubtedly one of Banksy’s most powerful, hard-hitting works, cementing his position as a pioneering political contemporary artist. Napalm is a mostly monochromatic screen print in three colours. The work references a photograph taken during the Vietnam War, showing a nine year-old-girl (Kim Phuc) running from the horror of a Napalm blast. The moment was captured by photographer Nick Ut. On this print, Banksy took the photograph as his context for creating a disarming juxtaposition – we have two supposedly friendly American icons of consumerism (Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse), smiling as they lead the terrorised girl away from a disaster. This artwork is a quintessential and especially strong formulation of Banksy’s critique of the military-industrialist complex, linking violent conflict and capitalism. This is also demonstrated in other works like Bomb Hugger and Happy Choppers.
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