Banksy Welcome to Hell – Limited Edition Screen Print

Our Banksy prints are produced using the exact methods as Banksy’s early works. Each piece masterfully silk screen printed by hand to the correct colour specification and dimensions, onto the original 300gsm untreated cartridge paper used by Pictures on Walls.

Details:

Artist: Banksy
Title: Welcome to Hell
Medium: Screen print on 300gsm untreated cartridge paper
Format: Limited edition replica
Year of original: 2004
Size: H 35cm x W 50cm
Framing details: Not framed
Edition size: 500
Signed: No
Condition: New
Provenance: banksyprints.online COA

The print will be despatched rolled in an oversized strong art postal tube with acid-free tissue and heavy kraft paper via courier, insurance to full value.

International collectors welcome.

Welcome to Hell is part of a trilogy of screenprints known as Placard Rats, each of which depicts the rat holding placards containing protest messages. The other two pieces from the trilogy include the statements, Get Out While You Can and Because I’m Worthless.

The entire series only contained 75 signed prints and 175 unsigned prints, each containing colourways of either red or pink. Banksy’s use of the rat is extensive and can be seen in many murals around London’s streets.  

Finished in Banksy’s signature black and white stencilled style, the rat is depicted as standing upon its hind legs, holding a placard with the words ‘Welcome to Hell’ written in bright red, which is undoubtedly meant to be a vivid representation of blood.  

The message displayed in such a striking fashion is contrasted by the CND or peace sign around the rat’s neck, yet another example of double entendre in Banksy’s work.  

The piece represents the artist’s stance and commentary on law enforcement, militarism, capitalism, and consumerism, focusing on how modern life is observed throughout the over surveilled city.

The use of the rat symbol rose to popularity in the late ’80s in France through stencil artist Blek le Rat, the initiator of the French urban art movement.  Blek le Rat, also known as Xavier Prou ‘The father of stencil graffiti art’ began spraying rats along the banks of the Seine and around Paris “because rats are the only wild animals living in cities, and only rats will survive when the human race disappears and dies out. I wanted to do a rat invasion. I put thousands all over Paris.”

Stencilled rats began appearing in the United Kingdom two decades later and quickly rose to prominence in Banksy’s works. In his book Banksy, Wall and Peace, Banksy states, “Every time I think I’ve painted something slightly original, I find out that Blek le Rat has done it as well, only 20 years earlier.”