This piece is among the harshest of Banksy’s early canvas works, both in its scale and in the sentence it carries. Dated 2001, it is made with black spray paint and stencil technique on coarse woven hessian, and at 252 by 193.5 centimetres it is almost the size of a wall.

The image shows a jester figure in full costume, a clown, drawing two pistols at once with an almost theatrical flourish. This figure, a symbol of entertainment, children’s birthday parties and the circus tent, is posed here with a weapon, and the combination leaves the viewer somewhere between laughing and flinching.

But the real weight of the piece lies in the sentence written across it: “Every time I hear the word Culture, I release the safety catch on my 9 mm.” This line is not Banksy’s own invention. It goes back to the Nazi era playwright Hanns Johst, and is widely known in the form “Whenever I hear the word culture, I release the safety catch on my pistol.” Banksy turns the line back on himself, borrowing the language of fascism to voice his own anger at how the art world uses the word “culture”, and at how that word turns into a kind of armour of status and immunity. It is a deliberately uncomfortable quotation.

The clown figure is not accidental in Banksy’s visual language. Throughout his career the artist has repeatedly explored the mask of the entertainment industry, the threat hiding behind the smiling face. This piece is one of the most direct examples of that vein.

Having passed through the collection of the Lazarides Gallery in London, the piece went to auction at Phillips New York on 12 November 2009. Estimated at between 200,000 and 300,000 dollars, it sold for a hammer price of 386,500 dollars.

Insane Clown shows how sharp a language Banksy had already built, even before his move from the street to the gallery. A single figure, a single quotation, and a merciless question aimed at culture itself.