Golf Sale is a reinterpretation of a famous image: the 1989 photograph by Jeff Widener during the bloody suppression of the Democracy Movement in China. In the original, a lone man stands in front of a line of tanks, desperately attempting to stop their advance—a gesture of courage that became a universal symbol of nonviolent resistance.
Banksy faithfully reproduces the scene but introduces a disruptive element: instead of shopping bags, the protester holds a sign reading “Golf Sale” with a directional arrow. The artist shifts the message from a critique of Maoist Cultural Revolution—the original theme of the photograph—to a reflection on Western consumerist apathy. Banksy once stated: “We can’t do anything to change the world until capitalism collapses. In the meantime, we should all go shopping to console ourselves.” With this statement, the work takes on a dual meaning: a parody of the cultural emptiness generated by consumerism, and a tribute to those who find the courage to resist power, even alone.
The Tiananmen Square protests began in April 1989 and culminated in June, when the Chinese government declared martial law and sent the People’s Liberation Army to occupy Beijing. Soldiers, armed with assault rifles, fired on protesters and bystanders trying to stop them. Widener, an Associated Press photographer, was present to document the tanks’ advance. Initially irritated by the man in the frame, thinking he was ruining the shot, he soon realized he had captured one of the most emblematic moments of the 20th century.
