Ilana’s post about the fabulously eccentric Italian artist Cattelan reminded me of a certain artistic vandal no less worthy of mentioning. I would introduce him by his proper name at this point, except he hasn’t one that the public knows of. He is simply called “Banksy.”
Banksy’s work is cheeky, often irreverent, and usually imbued with some brow-raising political undertones (see above picture for a good example). Blurring the lines between defacement and art, Banksy’s expressive medium of choice is the street. And he doesn’t just confine himself to one locality – his graffiti has popped up in places like NYC, Australia, England (his home base), Detroit, Greece, Israel, Paris, and New Orleans. With such a large collection of targets and a sizable moneyed following (his aficionados have paid up to half a million dollars for his work), one would expect Banksy’s identity to be widely known by now. Not so. Those who know him, like his agent, refuse to deny or affirm supposed identifications. The elusive Banksy thus remains a mystery. Although that might just be half his appeal. After all, how often does the world encounter a notorious but anonymous street artist with a wicked sense of humor to boot? I’d venture to say not too often, which is what, I guess, makes Banksy the world’s most wanted vandal.
For more Banksy information, check out his book Wall and Piece and his Academy Award nominated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop.
For my IB Visual Arts class, our first assignment was to answer the question “What is art?” I decided to use Bansky and in particular his “you looked better on myspace” piece to prove that no matter how low brow one’s art is considered, it is still an art form. Many put Bansky’s work up on a pedestal saying it’s creative and innovative while others scoff claiming it’s talentless and wasteful. I suppose that the value of art is in the eye of the beholder, but it seems to be that an artist is only considered to have created art when the majority of society places value upon it. Look up the piece ‘piss christ’ by Andres Serrano. This piece is the source of much controversy, but I think that anything is considered art if its function is to evoke something within the viewer to establish a connection between artist and viewer.
Love it!
Duchamp’s infamous Fountain (and really all “readymades” for that matter) is an excellent example of your point. Also Damien Hirst’s Shark controversy a while back (“The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” vs. “A Dead Shark Isn’t Art”) illustrates the issue you bring up regarding when “art” actually becomes art.
The question of “What is Art” has been considered so many times in the last 100 years that one would think we would know by now. The fact is, we don’t. (Or an alternative answer is “everything.”) It is increasingly more difficult for artists to challenge our notion of the arts, but interesting to see that artists keeps rising to (or at least attempting to rise to) the challenge. Look at some of the pictures from the Dia Beacon that I posted on the “pages” at the top of the blog for some additional ideas to consider.
I did a post about the Art in the streets exhibit that is no longer coming to NYC-(http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/09/14/art-in-the-streets-exhibit-is-no-longer-coming-to-brooklyn/).
While the art is certainly controversial, the talent of such artists can’t be denied. Banksy has a following, despite his controversy…there is a demand for this type of art. This is another method of exposing New Yorkers to art, regardless of whether they visit a gallery or not, and in a sense is the most modern form of art available. For those who say that graffiti is done by uneducated gang members:
There are political undertones throughout Banksy’s (and others’) graffiti that are certainly thought provoking, and not just mindless gang-tags.
There are graffiti friendly spots throughout the five boroughs as a sort of exhibit to showcase such great artwork. An example of this is five points in Brooklyn… (http://american-journal.org/2011/08/5-pointz-brooklyns-graffiti-heaven/)
Graffiti is increasingly popular, so isn’t it embraced more?