Banksy.
His work.
Photographed.
With comments by Banksy.
In a book.
This is that book.

Added later: I found it quite moving, his description of being drawn to graffiti the outside of the walls imprisoning the Palestinians and being told off in no uncertain terms by the inhabitants. To beautify the walls is to insult them. Of course. Obvious when you think of it.

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I'm loving this, of course. And it's not that I disagree, exactly, with his messages, but a dominant one is this idea that

The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl their giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff.

Well, okay, but. There is lots of really clever, funny, aesthetically pleasing advertising out there and lots of crap graffiti.

I like the following pictures, taken recently near where I live. I don't find the advertising displeasing juxtaposed with the graffiti. In fact, I don't understand why I'm supposed to find the graffiti pleasing either absolutely or relatively. Banksy's stuff is pictures which either contain words or read like words. I don't see why it is comparable to the first three of these pictures and nor do I see why these three are supposed to represent something more acceptable than the last.











I think blank space is as important as silence. I don't understand why we have a desperate need to fill them up.

Later: and I'm not very happy about this either:

Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions and buy records by the billions. We the people, affect the making and the quality of most of our culture, but not our art.

The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success fo Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires.

Sorry, Banksy, but this is bull. There is a literary canon. There is a notion of 'classical music', both of which are exclusive in exactly the same way you complain about Art.

Just as there is popular music and popular writing, both looked down upon by their respective canons, so too in Art. There is a vast amount of popular art, including graffiti, including cartoons, including street art. People do that, they buy pictures being sold on the side of the road and they love them. They think they have purchased art. The mere fact that the governors of the Tate do not think so is neither here nor there.



( )

Added later: I found it quite moving, his description of being drawn to graffiti the outside of the walls imprisoning the Palestinians and being told off in no uncertain terms by the inhabitants. To beautify the walls is to insult them. Of course. Obvious when you think of it.

----------------------------------------

I'm loving this, of course. And it's not that I disagree, exactly, with his messages, but a dominant one is this idea that

The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl their giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff.

Well, okay, but. There is lots of really clever, funny, aesthetically pleasing advertising out there and lots of crap graffiti.

I like the following pictures, taken recently near where I live. I don't find the advertising displeasing juxtaposed with the graffiti. In fact, I don't understand why I'm supposed to find the graffiti pleasing either absolutely or relatively. Banksy's stuff is pictures which either contain words or read like words. I don't see why it is comparable to the first three of these pictures and nor do I see why these three are supposed to represent something more acceptable than the last.











I think blank space is as important as silence. I don't understand why we have a desperate need to fill them up.

Later: and I'm not very happy about this either:

Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions and buy records by the billions. We the people, affect the making and the quality of most of our culture, but not our art.

The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success fo Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires.

Sorry, Banksy, but this is bull. There is a literary canon. There is a notion of 'classical music', both of which are exclusive in exactly the same way you complain about Art.

Just as there is popular music and popular writing, both looked down upon by their respective canons, so too in Art. There is a vast amount of popular art, including graffiti, including cartoons, including street art. People do that, they buy pictures being sold on the side of the road and they love them. They think they have purchased art. The mere fact that the governors of the Tate do not think so is neither here nor there.



( )

Added later: I found it quite moving, his description of being drawn to graffiti the outside of the walls imprisoning the Palestinians and being told off in no uncertain terms by the inhabitants. To beautify the walls is to insult them. Of course. Obvious when you think of it.

----------------------------------------

I'm loving this, of course. And it's not that I disagree, exactly, with his messages, but a dominant one is this idea that

The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl their giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff.

Well, okay, but. There is lots of really clever, funny, aesthetically pleasing advertising out there and lots of crap graffiti.

I like the following pictures, taken recently near where I live. I don't find the advertising displeasing juxtaposed with the graffiti. In fact, I don't understand why I'm supposed to find the graffiti pleasing either absolutely or relatively. Banksy's stuff is pictures which either contain words or read like words. I don't see why it is comparable to the first three of these pictures and nor do I see why these three are supposed to represent something more acceptable than the last.











I think blank space is as important as silence. I don't understand why we have a desperate need to fill them up.

Later: and I'm not very happy about this either:

Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions and buy records by the billions. We the people, affect the making and the quality of most of our culture, but not our art.

The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success fo Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires.

Sorry, Banksy, but this is bull. There is a literary canon. There is a notion of 'classical music', both of which are exclusive in exactly the same way you complain about Art.

Just as there is popular music and popular writing, both looked down upon by their respective canons, so too in Art. There is a vast amount of popular art, including graffiti, including cartoons, including street art. People do that, they buy pictures being sold on the side of the road and they love them. They think they have purchased art. The mere fact that the governors of the Tate do not think so is neither here nor there.



( )

Banksy...the thinking person's favourite graffiti artist. He really is clever....and he can paint. I love his advice to stencil graffiti artists that the easiest way to become invisible is to wear a day-glo vest and carry a tiny transistor radio. Must say that I enjoyed this book.....it's pretty much all pictures except for a few explanatory notes here and there. I don't know how Banksy interfaced with his publishers. He must have been identified by now but manages to still appear to be anonymous. The book appears to be a reasonable anthology of his work to date...though a high point for me was when one of his framed works was auctioned off for a huge price and immediately a hidden paper shredder was started up and the thing was half shredded. (Apparently it was meant to be totally shredded but something went wrong)....but the value of the piece was apparently increased by the incident. Love his rats pouring paint down the kerb....and his grenadier guards writing graffiti, and the naked guy hanging by one hand from a window whilst the "wronged" husband looks out the window for him. Happy to give this five stars. ( )