Winnie The Pooh
Signed Mixed Media

In Winnie The Pooh, Banksy captures Winnie The Pooh sitting next to a tree. The bear appears to be crying or frustrated about something. The bear seems to be caught in a bear trap at the foot of a tree. Conventionally depicted in yellow, in this design the bear is rendered in black and white spray paint. Banksy adds a touch of satirical humour to the drawing by replacing Winnie The Pooh’s iconic pot of honey with a pot of money. The spray paint implies that the character, who is a symbol of childlike naivité, has been lured into the trap of money, materialism and consumerism. The spray paint explores themes of capitalism and greed and suggests that even the most innocent can fall victim to the lure of money and power.

Winnie The Pooh first appeared as a mural in Bristol, where Banksy grew up, in 1999. Banksy reproduced the image as a spray paint on canvas, making it one of the artist’s earliest collections of works on canvas.