Yahoo News Banksy artwork is revealed as UK's favourite
A wall stencil depicting a young girl with a heart-shaped balloon has been voted Britain’s favourite artwork ahead of John Constable's Hay Wain.
Artist Banksy’s Balloon Girl has beaten some of the greatest British painters for the top spot of the nation’s best loved pieces of art.
The mural depicts a young girl letting go of a red heart-shaped balloon and was originally sprayed on the side of a shop in east London’s Shoreditch in 2002.
Second place went to John Constable’s 1821 landscape The Hay Wain while in third was Jack Vettriano’s 1992 painting The Singing Butler.
The most famous version of Girl with Balloon appeared on the side of a bridge on the South Bank in 2002.
The artwork’s popularity soared and the piece can now be found on mugs, greeting cards and is available in print.
A smaller version was discovered on the cardboard backing on a cheap picture frame and was sold in 2012 for more than £73,000.
Constable painted Hay Wain as an ode to the British countryside of his childhood. It has held the top place for the nation’s best-loved painting, despite failing to sell when it was first shown at the Royal Academy in 1821. The artwork has since been ubiquitous, available on jigsaw puzzles, tea towels and biscuit tins.
While the majority of submissions were paintings, album covers also made the list, including the classic cover for Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side Of The Moon.
Peter Blake’s cover for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band came in at No.8; despite being ubiquitous this year as the 50th anniversary of the album was celebrated all over the world.
David Hockney, whose exhibition at Tate Britain was the gallery’s fastest-selling and most successful, only made 14th place with A Bigger Splash.
However, only two female artists made it onto the list, Bridget Riley’s Movement in Squares at No.15 and Maggi Hambling’s Scallop at No.18.
Others who featured on the list were LS Lowry, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Henry Moore.
Anonymous graffiti artist and political activist, Banksy is known for their satirical street art and subversive epigrams that combine dark humour using a distinctive stencilling technique.
Their work has been successful all over the world with some pieces being sold for nearly half a million pounds, including the eight foot tall sculpture of Happy Shopper which was bought for £420,000 in 2014.
The poll of 2,000 marks the launch of a new Samsung TV, The Frame, which carries more than 100 pre-loaded artworks for users to choose from, making it into a piece of art when not being used as a television.
The full list of the nation’s favourite artworks is as follows:
1. Banksy; Balloon Girl
2. John Constable; The Hay Wain
3. Jack Vettriano; The Singing Butler
4. JMW Turner; The Fighting Temeraire
5. Antony Gormley; The Angel of the North
6. L S Lowry; Going to the Match
7. John William Waterhouse; The Lady of Shalott
8. Peter Blake; Sgt Pepper album cover
9. Hipgnosis and George Hardie; Dark Side of the Moon album cover
10. George Stubbs; Mares and Foals
11. Thomas Gainsborough; Mr and Mrs Andrews
12. John Everett Millais; Ophelia
13. Andy Goldsworthy; Balanced Rock Misty
14. David Hockney; A Bigger Splash
15. Bridget Riley; Movement in Squares
16. Anish Kapoor; ArcelorMittal Orbit
17. Stik; A Couple Hold Hands in the Street
18. Maggi Hambling; Scallop
19. Henry Moore; Reclining Figure
20. Jamie Reid; Never Mind the Bollocks album cover
