His latest:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1308045,00.html

Like the way the power trunking and junction box resident on the wall has been incorporated? Or is he being too clever?

vortexual

sell out

urbansurgeon said...sell out

That he is. But i like him still.

Why is it when someone we like gets known and makes some money we call them a sell out? What's wrong with actually making money for doing something you like? We all gotta grow up sometime and it's better than a real job. I guess we are just jealous that we still have to get up and function in the daily grind and perceivably, they don't.

Basic ethos for grafitti writers/stencilers. Never sell out.

Making £300,000 for a print that's illegally stencilled on your property makes me sick. Seeing something as raw as aerosol work on some middle class twat's living room also makes me sick.

Letting them get away with it (them being the art glitterati), makes me even more sick.

looks like i've ignored the threadtitle.

i only commented on the work in question, i cant realy say if i like or dislike banksy.
i have no insight in his commercial behaviour nor am i interested in it.

for me that would be like judging the design of my imac by looking at steve's social manners.

only for clarification, i like the piece shown in that article, not more and not less.

'too out there to be underground' is his success story. Everybody is talking about him in 1 way or another. Very shrude PR if you ask me. The guy clearly has a talent so good on him !

ahhhhh - Krylon

i think mondo really says it: it wasn't intended to last.

the artist was making ephemera, as all taggers did/do.

people changed the "use" factor and started valuing his work beyond what he intended.



warm fuzzies, here at the 'too out there to be underground' , chris.

Changing your artistic vision to cash in = sellout
Making money because the world has come around to your way of thinking ≠ sellout

Which one fits Banksy?

orsonrockwell said...if you feel someone has compromised "their art"(which i think is a joke) for money
then stop looking, listening, or reading

You're absolutely right orson. But, I don't think anyone is advocating hangings ... or firing squads. I think we are discussing exactly the recourse you've mentioned.

It isn't "Should we have Banksy thrown in prison for high crimes against starving artists everywhere," but "Do we still like Banksy?"

In short, it's Banksy's prerogative to sell his art as he pleases ... and mine to decide whether I continue to support his art based on his actions. Money changes art ... or most any endeavor. Money is a catalyst ... a retardant ... a motivator ... a de-motivator. Money is a factor ... the presence, or lack, of it has an effect on the art. For good? Bad? It depends on the situation ... the individual(s) involved ... the art ... and, interestingly enough, the audience for that art. I may, in fact, still like the art, but dislike the Banksy "brand." And, like it or not, "brand" is, I believe, what he has been building. (OK ... not so short. )

Personally, I think Banksy is accomplishing exactly what he set out to do ... and he's probably having one hell of a time doing it. Good for him.

vortexual said...

Seeing as we are all on our soap box about the morals of making money, just how much did we all contribute to charity this week?

Some? Nothing...

£86 pounds.

nothing wrong with making money - good for him

more the cult of celebrity i guess

urbansurgeon said...nothing wrong with making money - good for him

more the cult of celebrity i guess

DINGDING!

Idiosyncratic said...Surely Banksy is the least "sell out" artist actually producing work today? He uses it as his mouthpiece, to give his opinion, and it just so happens it's ina way he loves to do and other people appreciate. A lot like many other greats, Arthur Miller, and even further back Aristophanes. It's commendable that people who have atalent use it to educate the world, rather than abuse it by trying to earn loads of money. Banksy didn't start to make money, that's just a fucking great bonus. And he didn't do it to shock people, he was just like any other street artist and using it as an outlet for his thoughts. I think before you can call him a sell out you need to look our generation's other great "artists" The Chapman Brothers who destroy timeless pieces of art for shock value, or any old twat who gives you a kitchen appliance in an empty room. They're the people who are in it for the money.
All in all, I love Banksy, in case you couldn't tell.

When Banksy started exhibiting his work in galleries, barns, farms, wherever, THAT was when i began to see where he was heading. Street art is about finding space and communicating the message you intend for the perusal of all - it turns mundane brickwork/trains/derelict buildings into a canvas to voice your message. Street art is just that, STREET. Not in museums, homes, or otherwise. I don't need to look anywhere to know that HE IS A SELLOUT. He has no control over his work anymore - it has been appropriated by the very people who collect works of "art" by the Chapman Bros, Hirst et all..

That's not to say i don't like his work. I think the messages he puts out are simple but effective, and they make people think/laugh/smile. That's great - but the very people who find his work accessible look away at real street art - the stuff that stick-up kids put their life in danger for... showmanship, skill, technique - real graf/stencil work that cannot be bought, pulled down and sold in a gallery, real raw art.

I apologise for being too old school in my attitude - but i grew up in working class areas of London where i hung out with kids from estates, their only outlet was to draw, paint and write or spend time on the rob.

i have a friend - an nct mum - who has six banksys on her wall insured for £160k i think

they aren't even that great

i like the image of the maid in islington/camden, but i hate that it was commissioned by Bono

pfft, typical middleclass veggie media type!

chris said...pfft, typical middleclass veggie media type!

Eh?

i like to enjoy art that someone gets to enjoy while making...

i like to have fun, myself... and find it fun to see art which was fun to create.

chris said...get a grip!!!!!!!!!!! (i was jk)

i'm fine dammit i thought for a min..oh nevermind

justkeepingitrealsYO™

meska... if you put one of your fine grafs on a wall, and later the owner of that wall sold it for a huge sum, and people started seeking out the work you'd done in the past and selling them.... would you change what you do? would you stop and deny yourself the joy of putting what you want to on walls and the sides of buildings?

with grafitti, once you've put it there, it's not really yours any more. i know that.

Banksy, like most artists, had pure intentions when he was young and carefree. also, like most artists, he's getting older. i bet he didn't have a pension fund going.

i don't think it's selling out to make some money on something you're facile at. there may come a point when it's craft instead of art, if he starts taking specific commissions and doing cookie-cutter repros of what's gone before. when that's not the case, he's still making art.

it's hard to judge. i think he still does art. i think he still makes .. in accordance with what moves him and what he wants to say. i think he's still making art, because for me... art happens when you make something that needs to exist and the only way it will exist if if you create it.

i've never seen anything he's done except in photos. i have seen some awesome graffiti artist's work. it wouldn't be their fault if the owner of the building kept the wall intact and put up a tent and charged admission. i would hope, when venality changes the value of the piece into something that has monetary value, that some of THAT value would accrue back to the artist. that just seems like fair doings.

mick said...meska... if you put one of your fine grafs on a wall, and later the owner of that wall sold it for a huge sum, and people started seeking out the work you'd done in the past and selling them.... would you change what you do? would you stop and deny yourself the joy of putting what you want to on walls and the sides of buildings?

Sorry to say, but Yes - i'm just not that kind of person... i could try, but it would mean nothing to me.
I guess everyone has their own agenda/motive for their art, and that's where i stand. I don't like money involved in anything i truly love - it distorts and destroys originality (impo).

repect, meska.

since we're talking about whether we like banksy.. not necessarily his work, i think my answer still has to be "i don't know". art like his can't be looked at adequately out of context. in someone's home.. eh.. likely i'd be unimpressed.

the fact that he keep doing what he wants to in spite of the glitterati, rico crowd that slavering after ever spilled drop of his paint.. THAT i like.

i think base is on it. Banksy likely doesn't give one tiny crap. that doesn't mean he won't take it to the bank, it just signifies that what others think or do is worth not so much in the hierarchy of values he puts on his own stuff.

'banksy' is a collab of roughly 6 to 8 people, anyway.

prince harry was pissed off his tour of duty in afghanistan was rumbled as he was lining HIS latest "banksee"

any coincidence the bag flag work appeared days after his return to london? ahhthinknot