Banksy. What a tw@t!!!

[Bewlay Bros]

This Banksy character.

Is he not just a vandalising chav with a little bit more talent than the average spray painter?

Fair enough he may be making some social comment, but the same san be said of the 1970's neo-Nazis thugs who spray painted NF all over the show.

Talent or not, if I caught him spraying anything on my wall, I'll kick his fat arse til he cries for his mummy.

Is the acceptance of blatent vandalism another sign of this once great Empire having all the morality of a chicken fiddler?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/71883 87.stm

[Booldawg]

tbh, even though these urban 'hip hop' style murals is yet another sign of bored UK teenagers keen to adopt black american youth culture, I do tend to look out for these colourful pieces of work that brighten up an otherwise dreary and depressing looking railway embankment. They're hardly along the same lines of daubing 'Liverpool FV rool OK' or 'AB rooolz'. There is a certain amout of skill and artistic talent involved.

[fredpuli47]

There was a story not long ago of a council covering one of these pieces of 'graffiti' only to be informed it was a Banksy, whereupon they sent workers to restore it!
Banksy's work is true art. Either that or it's the most worthwhile 'vandalism'. He has a neat line in witty fantasy and comment.

He certainly sells!. I was at an auction at Bonham's in London recently where his stuff was fetching many tens of thousands and the sale attracted a film crew and much media attention.It wouldn't have got much more if it had been a Sotheby's sale of a van Gogh 'Sunflowers'!.

He isn't utterly unknown. He lives in Bristol and employs an agent to do his sales and deals for him.Recently he was photographed doing one of his works in a public place.There's really no reason, apart from his own amusement, for him not to be fully known to everyone.

[jake-the-peg]

There is an interesting irony in fredpauli's story about how it is that something becomes valuable.

Banksy's art like any art or even shares or even your wall has only value because there's confidence that other people value it and are willing to part with other items of perceived value for it.

In that respect any art is a "confidence trick" but then so is a ten pound note.

This is what makes Banksy's art different. It's the first time that a grafetti artist has been so widely appreciated that his stuff has been seen as valuable.

That raises interesting questions abuot vandelism - a bit like if you were to come home from holiday and find that your house had been broken into but instead of heading off with your TV your house had cleaned it top to bottom and done your ironing

[JockSporran]

I hate graffitti, even artistic graffitti. It's just vandalism, pure and simple.

[Haggisdj]

One of the most informative and well thought-out pieces of graffito (singular) I have ever seen was sprayed on the back of our local sports center in two-foot high red letters. It read: HITLER WAS A NAZI

Mindblowing...