April 27, 2014

Artist who, without permission, spray-painted walls that belonged to other people says it's "disgusting people are allowed to go around displaying art on walls without getting permission."

So... that's humor, right? Banksy is playing with ideas about law and ownership. That's part of his art.

Here's The Daily Mail's article — with lots of pictures — about the "Stealing Banksy" art exhibit.

And here's the statement on the banksy.co.uk website seemingly officially distancing the artist from the exhibition and creating dissonance about whether the ownership of the walls is suspect and anyone buying these walls with the graffiti left on them will face litigation and need to come to terms with the artist:
The title of the exhibit shows that the exhibitioners are also playing — or trying to play — with the concept of ownership, and I suspect that the artist is actually involved in the whole thing, the legal angles have been worked out behind the scenes, and the notice at banksy.co.uk is part of the PR for the show and the sale of the work that is to follow, and, yes, I know that to the extent that I — a law professor (the law professor who went to art school) — am acting like I find this all so intriguing and playful from an art-and-law standpoint, I am augmenting and propagating the PR.

10 comments:

Rusty said...

Who owns the wall owns the art.

Oso Negro said...

As a reactionary commenter, let me further contribute to the PR campaign by lamenting the lack of a counter-Banksy who shows up with a baton to whack the original when he goes about doing his graffiti thing. Filming it, of course, as performance art.

Sam L. said...

What Rusty said. It was a gift(?), well, freely put there, by the "artist", so I say "...him and the horse he rode in on."

Rocketeer said...

Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.

Anonymous said...

Spray painting walls is for amateurs. I spray paint people as they walk by on the street. That 39-dollar Target sweater you are wearing? My squiggle and oblong circle make it Art. Sell it for however much you like, it is my gift to you.

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

This should be tested. Some vulgar outsider to the scam should walk up to that wall and graffitize the existing graffiti with strongly contrasting designs and colors, and then demand equal 'rights' to the desecration/decoration of someone else's wall.

Saint Croix said...

the law professor who went to art school

Interesting! I quit the practice of law to go to art school.

Radically different cultures, at least for me. Law school taught me to think, art school taught me to feel.

Jazzizhep said...

How about a bas-relief inspired by Bansky, carved out of his torso with a 12 gauge if he attempts to leave a piece of un-commishioned art on my walls?

cubanbob said...

What's Bansky complaining about? At worst the art was done on property that didn't belong to the artist without the owner's consent and at best the artist can be considered a fool for gifting the art to the property owner.

stlcdr said...

Banksy is folk law in his own time: the graffiti isn't graffiti in the more normal (sic) American style gang graffiti.

They are vignettes on public/private property, and are actually quite interesting, if not appropriate or good.

I would also say that he is capitalizing on the statement made at this 'art gallery'. His graffiti is very calculating; I don't see why this is any different.