Friday, 19 October 2018

Banksy Pranksy

This was probably British street artist Banksy's most well known work .....

Girl With Balloon ~ Iconic Image

....... Girl With Balloon. The image that really cemented his place in popular culture.

In October 2018 it was auctioned by Sotheby's auction house in London, fetching £860,000 (with add ons £1,042,000), from an unidentified female 'European buyer'.

The Transformation .... £1m Shredded ......

It then underwent a transformation in front of the whole world, engineered by the artist himself. 

'Love Is In The Bin' - Formerly 'Girl With Balloon'

Thus becoming the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction. This prank by Banksy has cemented his reputation as a witty observer of contemporary culture. However it has to be said that the artist later confirmed that the shredder should have completely destroyed the image, instead of creating a new work of art.

But of course he isn't the first artist to make this kind of statement ...

Erased de Kooning Drawing .....

In 1953 Robert Rauschenberg obliterated the original image given to him by the revered Dutch artist Willem de Kooning. He mounted the now blank sheet of paper in a gilded frame, onto which his friend Jasper Johns inscribed with the words, 'Erased de Kooning Drawing. Robert Rauschenberg'.

Jasper Johns has Neo-Dadaist sensibilities .... a movement that once inspired Marcel Duchamp the French conceptual artist, to place a urinal in a gallery in 1917 (under the name R.Mutt), which was rejected by the Society of Independent Artists, but changed Western art.

"Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp (1917)

.... and was the birthing point of Damien Hirst's shark in formaldehyde and Tracey Emin's unmade dirty bed.

Of course there are some who think that Banksy is in fact also the 'unnamed buyer', and that the whole thing is actually an even bigger hoax. But reportedly the buyer is pleased with the outcome and has paid Sotheby's, as she reportedly has said "At first I was shocked, but I realised I would end up with my own piece of art history." ..... You pays your money and makes up your own mind.

2 comments:

  1. The way the painting stopped shredding makes it look like a magic trick where it could be rolled back up, unharmed.

    Banksy has done some good art but this looks more like a stunt rather than more art.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was meant to be a piece of performance art (or stunt if you will). The fact that the shredder would jam and create a new bit of permanent art wasn't factored in. That makes it more interesting in my eyes.

      Thanks for the comment mate.

      Delete

All comments are welcomed, or even just thanks if you enjoyed the post. But please make any comment relevant to the post it appears under. Off topic comments will be blocked or removed.

Moderation is on for older posts to stop spamming and comments that are off topic or inappropriate from being posted .... comments are reviewed within 48 hours. I don't block normal comments that are on topic and not inappropriate. Vexatious comments that may cause upset to other commentators, or that are attempting to espouse a particular wider political view, are reviewed before acceptance. But a certain amount of debate around a post topic is accepted, as long as it remains generally on topic and is not an attempt to become sounding board for some other cause.

Final decision on all comments is held by the blog author and is final.

Comments are always monitored for bad or abusive language, and or illegal statements i.e. overtly racist or sexist content. Spam is not tolerated and is removed.

Commentaires ne sont surveillés que pour le mauvais ou abusif langue ou déclarations illégales ie contenu ouvertement raciste ou sexiste. Spam ne est pas toléré et est éliminé.