One Mans Blog
Specialization is for Insects.
Posted on Mar 14, 2007 - 1:28am by John P. in Art, Politics, Videos
Hi kids. Today’s art lesson comes in the form of England’s most popular and well known graffiti artist. How popular is he? Well, two men were actually convicted in a UK court for defacing one of his works. That’s right. He tagged a building, they covered it up, and they went to jail!
Banksy is no street thug. He is a serious artist that happens to have an addiction to spray painting his art in public places. His art features striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or pro-freedom.
Of course, there is one small problem. The fact that he’s running around everywhere illegally defacing private property presents a real problem, and for that reason no one actually knows for sure who Banksy is.
There is a fantastic web site cataloging his work, and I found it absolutely captivating. Each image really needs to be examined. Not in the kind of way that pretentious people standing in a museum stare at a painting for hours and then announce they found “meaning”… Banksy’s statements jump right out and hit you with a brick between the eyes.
If you happen to be in or around London and want to check out Banksy’s street art, here is a map of various locations. You need to zoom in, but there are 114 locations marked.
Lazarides, Inc. purports to be the only gallery actually selling Banksy authorized originals. You can also visit what is purported to be the official Banksy Web site, which is run by a photographer who has cataloged what seems to be almost all of Banksy’s work.
Other sites cataloging Banksy’s art:
You may also be interested in procuring a couple of books about Banksy’s work: Wall and Piece (Hardcover), Banksy Locations & Tours (Paperback)
Here is a video from the BBC which is one of the only videos of the artist at work:
And here is a video of Banksy planting fake art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
And here is a video that showcases some of his more famous works:
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Its all very well praising the artistic element of this persons work but defacing public/private property is no laughing matter. With public property we all pick up the tab, for private property some innocent individual has to foot the bill. The sooner this individual is caught, prosecuted and made to pay financially the better for all concerned.
are you serious ?
your worried about the cost of some spray paint to be removed compared to what the government has illegally spent killing hundreds and thosands of innocents in a war noone wants ?
get real.
your attitude is why this country is int he state its in…
ben
I have always valued graffiti artists very much.They create cery beautiful works.I am not so good at doing this so I prefer just watching their work and admiring them.
[...] Other Kinds of guerilla communication from glowstick graffiti to guerilla marketing are also legal - as they either leave no trace or even get official approval. The work of infamous street artist Banksy is so popular that, despite being technically illegal, people have been arrested for defacing his graffiti. Be sure to check out these other amazing works of urban guerilla street art. Share Your WebUrban Experiences These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
The video is of Channel 4 News, not BBC news.
We need more outspoken political artists. What Banksy lacks in subtly he makes up for with thought and passion. He also works well with humor — a fairly rare trait nowadays.