Closer

Visual Analysis | Banksy ‘I HATE MONDAYS’
Posted on July 4, 2012 by dmarciano

‘I Hate Mondays’ is a painting by Banksy the street artist. The painting has four African children in it in a bare and desolate place, which honestly looks like it is in the middle of nowhere. In the foreground there are two children, one that is right in the centre of the picture that is standing up holding a metal bucket in one hand and a stick in the other, he is wearing an old white t-shirt that has ‘I HATE MONDAYS’ on it. The shirt looks dirty and has holes in it he is slightly looking down, but his eyes are looking at us, the viewers. On the left hand side of him there is another child that is curled down with his arms wrapped around his knees, looking up at the child with the shirt, looking like he is about to indistinctly give him something. In the mid-ground on the right hand side of the child with the shirt there is another two children that appear to be working. One is standing up with a bucket on his head holding it with one hand, looking at the viewer, and then on the right of him there is another child bending over picking up something that we can’t see in the ground. The two children on the right hand side of the child with the t-shirt are balanced out with the one on the left hand side. The back ground is dark and gloomy, it looks deserted and there is nothing there besides what looks like mist. The facial expressions of all the boys who look like they’re aged between five to ten are sad and angry.
I think that Banksy has used spray paint, with stencilled prints on top then worked them with paint. The sky is filled with cool colours and looks smooth and is contrasting to the ground. The colour in this painting he has used has made the painting look very dull, and creates a sad sort of mood. It looks like there are a lot of different textures on this painting like the ground, the children and the sky. The child that has the t-shirt on that says ‘I hate Mondays’ is...