Banksy, guerrilla artist or showman
Posted by 6fish on September 14, 2006
Banksy has his latest show on in LA at the moment, I’m not going to review it because I’m not likely to find myself in LA anytime soon so if you’ve seen it feel free to comment. But it did make me look at his work in more detail to see what I thought and mostly I’d say he made me laugh. Most of what he does is humorous with a political or social edge and for me is as much entertainment as anything else. Looking at early reviews of the latest show and in particular the painted elephant I do wonder whether fame and fortune have made their mark though. The inevitable pressure to scale up seems to have taken its toll and he’s starting to look like the graffitti equivalent of Damien Hurst. Stick with the small stuff Banksy, guerrilla war is all about hit and run!
Banksy website – Worth a look.
Caspar said
Guerrilla artist or showman? Both! Banksy’s great. He doesn’t have to stick to one particular type of work (Hirst doesn’t do that either, thankfully), and it doesn’t matter to me whether I see his stuff in the street or a gallery. He’s flogging stuff for top dollar prices these days, but that doesn’t make him a sell-out. I’ve seen a few of his pieces at the Lazarides Gallery near where I work. Have a butchers at their site at http://www.lazinc.com/. Wot larks.
Caspar
Caspar said
…and on the other hand:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1878555,00.html
I don’t agree with the opinions expressed in this article – but it’s an entertaining read!
Caspar
6fish said
He he thanks Caspar hadn’t seen that article. I think I’m somewhere between that and hes a genius (except he clearly isn’t of course).