Picnic appeared in 2006 in Brighton as Banksy’s mural critiquing consumption and modernity. The work is known through reproduction prints because the original is lost and serves as a satirical continuation of the picnic art tradition.

At the centre of the work are modern picnickers; they sit in relaxed poses, eating sandwiches and chatting, surrounded by Neanderthal hunter figures. The hunters hold spears and clubs, the composition is caricatural and ironic: civilisation and savagery are distorted in the same frame.

Banksy reinterprets the picnic art tradition. He satirises the pastoral bridging theme that extends from Goya’s 1776 romantic peasant picnic to Manet’s 1862 modern nude-figured Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe by surrounding modern picnickers with hunters. This references consumption satire since the 1970s pop-art; Banksy shows civilisation’s disconnection from nature with exaggerated contrast.

He questions modernity and consumer society’s disconnection from nature. While the picnickers are surrounded by hunters, he mocks the picnic’s claim to bridge nature and civilisation. The work combines the romantic elements of 300 years of picnic art with satirical critique, emphasising how consumption mania has eradicated wild instincts. Banksy implies that ‘picnic’ is now a fake escape.

Banksy uses stencil technique with minimalist contrast and caricatural composition; the contrast between the picnickers’ comfort and the hunters’ threat intensifies the visual irony. Critics describe the work as ‘the satirical peak of picnic art’.