Banksy - scum or genius?

[StarSparkle]

Genius - no question.

 

Have you SEEN his work? It's a marvel to behold

 

StarSparkle

[poppins]

He should stay away from politics - he doesn't seem to be able to move away from contrived trendy yet somnolently predictable themes.

 

The commissioned stuff is ok if you like that sort of thing.

 

The canvases are ok if you like that sort of thing.

 

The photography depicting run down Britain?

Hasn't he & his sort been a causation of it?

 

Art is very personal - you either like it or you don't. To have the pomposity & arrogance to daub it wherever you please I'm afraid drops him into the scum department for me.

 

 

Fully agree with you Don.

[Mathom]

As another forummer who's into grafitti told me, Banksy is neither a tagger nor a graffiti artist. He's a street artist. He doesn't do his work freehand, he uses stencils which is easy, apparently!

 

I like some of it - if he did it on a historic building I'd be mad as there's not a lot of need to 'comment' on them but most of what I've seen has been done on ugly urband spaces, and a lot of his stuff IS in galleries so nurrrr

 

 

Anyway, laying aside the rights and wrongs of where he leaves his street art, what about if it's Actually Any Good? I think it is, as he works in a British style (not keen on the US style of graffiti, prefer the Kid Acne style) and his stuff can be very witty. I like the stencilled, ultra-realistic style too.

 

Check out the Tesco carrier bag flag here:

http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/horizontal_1.htm

I love that! The other ones I like are his reworkings of those twee 'chocolate box' type paintings, and the Monet with shopping trolley.

[Venables]

Yes, you can think the law should be changed; but if you think it's not the law, you are wrong, plain as.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Anyway, the guy is a genius.

[Wildcat]

His work on the west bank wall, in particular was brilliant, considering the wall itself is declared illegal by the United Nations atleast in this case he can't be accused of anything illegal.

 

The illegality of some of the works in a way add an additional dimension, like the cave art hoax at the British museum.

 

On a more local level, does anyone know anything about the striking Ninja painted on the wall in Burngreave that I pass every day on the bus? It looks really good.

[Mathom]

That British Museum one made me laugh! And the Museum also saw the funny side which was great. I wonder if any tourists were taken in by it? Going home to Texas and saying "Gee, mom, they had shopping carts in the days of Cavemen".

[Don_Kiddick]

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Anyway, the guy is a genius.

 

We had a class full of them when I did my O-level art.

 

His standard is at best a very poor O level.

 

Mind you with the dumbing down of the education system this past 20 years I can see why he's seen as a genius. Maybe he'll progress onto media studies next?

[Jes0rKah]

I personally really like Banksy's work and wouldn't mind it on a house I owned! I'd rather that on buildings than some of the other graffiti. I'm not at all fussed that 'T.J woz 'ere..' etc.

[melthebell]

what about his "paris hilton stunt" he did?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5310416.stm

 

i rememember that, in fact i think i downloaded the tracks and artwork around that time...might look if ive got em still

[Venables]

We had a class full of them when I did my O-level art.

 

His standard is at best a very poor O level.

 

Mind you with the dumbing down of the education system this past 20 years I can see why he's seen as a genius. Maybe he'll progress onto media studies next?

 

Ive no idea what your banging on about, but I`ll respect your opinion re his standard.