well it has gotten people taking…so you have to hand to him there.
the question isn’t if something is art or not, everything can be art. the question is, is it good art? that is both a subjective and objective answer on so many levels. any piece that gets people talking at the very least has made a statement.
i like the orginal more, this addition feels too forced to me. trying too hard. can’t please everyone i guess, lol. so true.
and that could have an even larger shredder built into it! i like where you are going… heehee
Because it’s a manipulated market, and because people other than the (living) artists are making the real money. In this case, people have already declared the shred to be worth more than the original painting. Does that mean Banksy will see more money? And remember, they only have to convince one person this is true.
The art world (okay, realistically a majority of the art criticism world) worships in the cult of novelty. So, it’s not about what we see, it’s about the idea, what he did. Trying to do it again will earn scorn, if taken seriously at all. The global response is at much the art here, as the thing itself.
This will be remembered, and not soon overshadowed, I think.
All collectables markets have a degree of manipulation. Especially if there is speculation. You are gambling that what you buy now will have greater interest in the future. This can be a fairly safe bet for some markets, and a risky one for others. Good rule of thumb is - collect what you love.
When it comes to high end art markets - don’t care. It is rich people making money off of other rich people. I’ll just get a coffee table book or art prints.
Of course Banksy won’t see any more - it is being sold on the secondary market.
Banksy doesn’t seem to care much about money. I mean, he seems to be doing OK for himself, but he could make a lot more if he wanted to.
As an artist myself (albeit one who is not famous or influential) I kinda fluv this; whether it was just a stunt, and regardless if the auctioneers were in on it.
You’re right on all counts. I said the art market is a scam. I never said it wasn’t rich people being scammed. Obviously whoever ends up paying two million for Banksy’s shred won’t be a truck driver. It’s just a damn shame Banksy will never see a penny of it. He’s the one being exploited. (Please note: I’m not asking people to shed tears for Banksy. He seems very happy where he is.)
Another part of the scamminess is the money laundering factor. As Corey points out, “floods of dark money has sought highly liquid, tax-invisible assets”. Dirty rich types drive up the price of everything in the market, even the stuff they don’t trade in. The auction houses just can’t seem to stop it…
I’m not sure how one could call this a rebranding effort - they didn’t come up with marketing material saying, “Hey, this is us now!” They didn’t change who they are relative to their existing audience (which a rebranding would do). They simply had a sale, with plausible deniability, that also worked as a millennial-friendly stunt. And it absolutely seems to have worked, too. The bidders reportedly were a much younger-than-usual crowd, and this got a lot of attention from the right demographic, based on who’s reporting it.
I’m nowhere near sophisticated enough to determine if Banksy is a good artist who will stand the test of time or just a lucky prankster. But a significant portion of my appreciation for him is that he a: makes art fun, and b: seems content to allow his work and not himself to stand in the spotlight. In this Gilded Age of (especially male) Ego, someone who can resist the temptation to drape themselves in laurels appeals to me.
Also, and again I’m no art expert of any kind, but I like that he seems to put a lot of work into his art, and not just tell unattributed minions to pickle this poor shark or diamond encrust that skull.
[Chosen for funny; Gru is much better bloke than Hirst.]
Not directly, but: yes, Banksy’s ‘brand’ will be emboldened by this successful performance, so there will be secondary effects to his opportunities, and thus, money.
They would need to be at least two persons present at the next sale convinced of the new worth for the price to go up ; )
I have all kinds of meh feelings about the art market, esp how it is about money being the only measure of ‘worth’ for art. But someone like Banksy is lucky to be alive-while-in-demand, and able to use the abomination to create new opportunities to, you know, be heard.
“Scam”, I don’t know.
I really find it difficult not to consider the ramifications of this being a planned stunt, or form a positive judgement about the intentionality of the act.This auction event, and the likely collusion involved in executing it, manifests to me the extent to which Banksy participates in and is interrelated with the art (and capitalist) establishment. To me all this artist is doing is participating in a type of ‘release valve’ that capitalism is so clever at exploiting to leverage its continued dominance. I am reminded of a corporations subversive twitter account or an edgy MTV show from the '90s.
*NB, I enjoy edgy MTV shows from the 90s as well as not being completely devoid of joy or fun.
