Friday, January 11, 2008

Banksy - Art or garbage?

It's funny. In a world where anyone would do anything just for personal celebrity someone still tries to hide. And it's much more funny cause the guy is famous. The more he wants to hide the more he gets known!

Banksy. That's the name. Or better that's the nick. He is an artist. If it's acceptable to call artist someone who paints (also) the city walls. Not so much is know about his identity. But it's sure that his pieces of art are part of Sotheby's Auction. At ever increasing sale prices. Maybe that's not enough to call him artist. But his work is strongly discussed. Not only for its quality. That could be liked or not. No. What does really propeller the discussion is that it's still not clear if Banksy is a silly vandal or something more.

To some extent he reminds me Keith Haring. Haring did started to satisfy his artistic needs in the NYC underground. Painting with white graffiti the black paper sheet used for covering "expired" ads. The ones who did "steal" those curious drawings have now a treasure in their hands.

Banksy too operates in the urban habitat. The wall is his canvass. Graffiti are his art. Using the stencil he has decorated the ghetto walls of some of the less nice British towns. He has left his mark all around the world. What makes Banksy different from other Graffiti makers is the message within his artwork. Never light. Always stimulating. He loves to provoke people. He is a rebel. A very self-marketing oriented rebel. Yes, he gives for free his artwork to towns and people but he also has a very active net created to sell it. But this is not something bad.

Once again I cannot tell if Banksy could be considered an artist or not. Probably yes. He paint for the people. He makes the people talk about his work. But he makes them smile too. For sure he makes the people think. And to do so (with any means) is one of the first target of each artist.

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