Banksy's Crude Oil (Vettriano)
Image © Sotheby's / Crude Oil (Vettriano) © Banksy 2005
Banksy
266 works
Banksy’s Crude Oil (Vettriano) is a shrewd subversion of Jack Vettriano's The Singing Butler, a work which once held the title as the highest-selling artwork by a Scottish artist. In this 2005 oil and spray paint piece, Banksy juxtaposes romance with reality, transforming the idyllic beachside waltz into a stark environmental critique. The couple, still locked in an elegant dance, are now oblivious to the two figures in hazmat suits struggling to dispose of an oil drum.
This painting is part of Banksy’s Crude Oils series, a collection of modified classical and popular paintings that transform familiar imagery into political satire. By co-opting Vettriano’s romanticised vision and inserting the imagery of ecological disaster, Banksy challenges the viewer to confront the intersection of privilege and environmental neglect. The figures in protective gear suggest an urgent crisis, one that the dancers choose to ignore. The tuxedoed butler, who in Vettriano’s version dutifully shields the dancers from the rain, remains in Banksy’s parody, but the stormclouds he shields them from now hint at something far more ominous.
Like much of Banksy’s work, Crude Oil (Vettriano) weaponises contrast - the elegant versus the grotesque, the carefree versus the crisis-ridden - to highlight societal blindness to pressing global issues. While Vettriano’s original is an aspirational fantasy, Banksy’s reinterpretation asks whether blissful ignorance is truly sustainable in a world facing climate catastrophe.
“This is Banksy at his best - turning the familiar into the provocative, making us look twice at what we might otherwise take for granted.”
Banksy's Commentary in Crude Oil (Vettriano)
Banksy has long used his art to critique modern society’s selective attention, particularly when it comes to environmental and political crises. Crude Oil (Vettriano) serves as a visual metaphor for the way disaster is often sanitised or ignored by those unaffected by it. The oblivious dancers symbolise an insulated elite, removed from the consequences of industrial pollution, corporate greed, and climate degradation.
The figures in hazmat suits, struggling to contain the spill, contrast sharply with the poised couple who remain undisturbed. Their efforts are overshadowed, even mocked, by the absurdity of the scene: while some battle to save the environment, others continue as if nothing has changed. The oil drum, an unambiguous symbol of environmental destruction, replaces the picturesque sand and serenity of Vettriano’s setting.
This painting exemplifies Banksy’s ability to strip nostalgia of its comfort, replacing it with urgent contemporary concerns. By altering an image that has become synonymous with decorative art and mass reproduction, he forces his audience to reassess not just this particular artwork, but the broader tendency to romanticise escapism while ignoring the very real crises unfolding around us.
Banksy’s Crude Oil (Vettriano) is set to appear at auction on 4 March 2025 at Sotheby’s London Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction, carrying an estimate of £3,000,000 - £5,000,000. This particular work is being offered from the collection of Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, adding a layer of celebrity provenance that may heighten its desirability among collectors.
Exhibition History
- London, 100 Westbourne Grove, Crude Oils: A Gallery of Re-mixed Masterpieces, Vandalism and Vermin, October 2005
Banksy
266 works
