That giant rat? A Banksy painted in 2004 on a pub in Liverpool. Instead of getting buffed or physically removed, the entire pub has just been sold in an auction for £114,000. The Liverpool Echo reports that the piece had serious interest from 4 parties, but eventually sold to some club owners. Let’s just hope they don’t turn it into “Club Banksy” or something like that. On a similar note, the outside of The Foundry has a similar Banksy rat which is going to be preserved and incorporated into the design of new hotel which is about to replace that pub.
A very interesting article on Channel 4’s website and piece on the 7pm Channel 4 news on Monday. Read it if you are interested in the art market.
There’s no one quite like Banksy – the only street artist most of us have ever heard of it.Aside from the mystique that surrounds his identity (the Daily Mail claims to have unmasked him) his rise from the streets has brought him into conflict with the art market. One Notting Hill dealer accuses of him of being a control freak.
Our little excursion into the Banksy market was instructive.
Banksy has an outfit to sell his prints, Pictures on Walls in Commercial Street, and a sister organisation, Pest Control to authenticate everything. He has an agent and a publicist.
I’ll say two things about the article and video: 1. Who cares if Banksy’s a brand or whatever? Every successful artist does the exact same things to varying degrees. 2. Channel 4 should stop pretending that the media aren’t complicit in the Banksy hype that they’re now trying to call him out for. The BBC found the house where Banksy grew up and could have revealed his identity, but didn’t. The Daily Mail could probably do a hell of a lot better job “unmasking” the guy. And if the Channel 4 reporter Nicholas Glass was at the opening of Banksy versus The Bristol Museum and honestly didn’t notice that there was artwork for sale, he can’t be said to have been very observant at all. And of course, I include myself in being complicit building Banksy-hype and generally ignoring the odd bits like not authenticating street pieces or the fact that he works with a PR agency, but I don’t think I’ve ever pretended to not be part of that hype-machine. Oh, and I’ll add a third comment: 3. Yes, we should respect Banksy’s privacy and just let this thing run it’s course, it’s more fun that way.
First of all, I came across this quote today from Skewville from a few years ago about the potential implosion of the street art world: “I think once there’s a big corny movie that comes out like street art 3d or whatever, then it’s gonna… that’s when it’s over.” I just thought that was funny.
More importantly, urbanartcore.eu has just posted a review of Exit Through The Gift Shop. From what I’ve seen, it’s the first review by a fellow street art fanatic and not a typical film reviewer. It’s great to hear that everybody from film critics to hard-core Banksy fans are loving the film.
Exit Through The Gift Shop is playing at the Berlin Film Festival today, and Banksy had a little video message for people before the screening.
Banksy Prints reports that Banksy said “I guess my ambition was to make a film that would do for graffiti art what ‘The Karate Kid’ did for martial arts — a film that would get every schoolkid in the world picking up a spray can and having a go…As it turns out, I think we might have a film that does for street art what ‘Jaws’ did for waterskiing.”
Banksy Prints also speculates that since the festival director has stated that Banksy is in town, maybe he will paint a few pieces in Berlin. I’d say there’s a pretty good shot of Banksy doing some painting while he’s in town, after all, if I’m not mistaken, there are no surviving Banksy paintings left in Berlin.
It looks like Banksy‘s film Exit Through The Gift Shop is already helping boost the price of his artwork, even though it sounds like the film is more about Mr. Brainwash (whose prices somehow have not dropped to $0, yet). This week, there have been 5 Banksy pieces at auction in London, and almost all sold above the high estimate.
Why is there a Banksy print for sale at Sotheby’s instead of Dreweatts or Bonhams? Because it was a Kate Moss. An edition of just 50, these are probably the most sought-after of any of Banksy’s prints. They aren’t my favorite, but I’m just one guy and the market definitely disagrees with me on this one. The print was estimated to sell at £25-35,000. Including the buyer’s premium, it went for £46,850. The Kate Moss prints have sold for as much as £96,000 before, but this is probably the best price one has achieved since the recession hit.
Both originals at Sotheby’s were older works, and sold to benefit The Luggage Store Gallery. Bomb Hugger and Armoured Car were both estimated at £25-35,000. Bomb Hugger sold for £58,850 and Armoured Car reached £49,250.
Next up was the Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction on the 12th. They had an amazing Banksy canvas, You Told That Joke Twice. Christie’s estimated the piece at £100-150,000, and it sold for £169,250 including the buyer’s premium, which put the hammer price near the upper end of the estimate. This was the only Banksy piece this weekend not the exceed the high estimate.
Later that day, Phillips de Pury had their Evening Sale in Contemporary Art. Their Banksy was Vandalised oil #001, a fantastic crude oil. With a conservative estimate of just £60-80,000, the results here were outstanding. The painting sold for £121,250 including the buyer’s premium.
Now, as noted with the Kate Moss print, these aren’t the best auction results Banksy has ever had, and I don’t want to sound like that NYTimes article that said “The art market is once again shooting up like a rocket,” but the Banksy market at least seems on the road to recovery.
According to Amazon.com, Poster Boy has a book coming out next month. Poster Boy: The War of Art should be released on March 2nd.
Here’s Amazon’s description of the book:
His cut and slash mash-ups of subway platform billboards only exist in New York City, but Poster Boy’s artful and funny appropriations of advertising have gotten him attention the world over. The New York Times dubbed him an “anti-consumerist Zorro with a razor blade, a sense of humor and a talent for collage”; the Guardian UK said of his work, it “is witty, web-savvy and economical . . . and the only materials it requires are chutzpah, imagination and a 50 cent blade.”
Poster Boy tweaks corporate copy, replacing it with incisive and playful puns and turns of phrase rich with innuendo and political punch. Beautiful models turn ghastly and iconic spokespeople become the mouthpieces for Poster Boy’s ideas. Poster Boy: The War of Art collects his best work yet.
This could be a really great book, also, it could be complete crap. Has Poster Boy really done enough work to fill a book? Especially if it only contains his “best work?” Maybe he has, but then again, his forays into anything other than subway ad disruptions have been met with a lukewarm response at best. I’m hopefully, but cautious. What I would love to see is something like half the pages filled with disruptions that he has made at home with magazines or something. That might be interesting.
It’s so nice to read things like this story and realize that I shouldn’t be so worried about being starved for culture when I move to Philadelphia this fall. Philagrafika 2010 is an art exhibition about printmaking and the first incarnation of what may become a tri-annual event in Philadelpiha. Artnet has a great article about the whole event which is well worth reading. In short, if you like printmaking, Philagrafika seems to be the place to be.
One of my favorite artists (street or otherwise) is Swoon, and of course, she is all about printmaking, so it’s great to see that she has gotten involved in Philagrafika with some new work on the streets of Philadelphia. Becki Fuller was in Philadelphia to take some photos of Swoon’s pieces. Here’s a few of those:
This piece has something a bit new in it, the architectural component is something reminiscent of her raft projects:
And I’ve never seen this print before, so it’s either really new or really old:
Basically, if you like murals and cute things, buy this book. Steve Powers’ A Love Letter For You project was one of the highlights of art in 2009, and now you and see all his murals in a printed book. The Free News Projects has the books for sale for $19.95.
The next issue of The Art Street Journal, Elisa Carmichael’s free art newspaper, is on it’s way to thousands of people around the world. You can sign up to get your own copy mailed to your home on TASJ’s website. Issue 7 features everything you see on the cover plus much more including Roa and Stormie Mills.
Those who already read TASJ know what a great project it is, but just because the journal is free to subscribers doesn’t mean it’s free to write, print and post… That’s why TASJ is asking for your help in winning a $50,000 grant from Pepsi. All you have to do is vote.
Here’s some more info:
The Art Street Journal (tasj) is a monthly art publication focused on talented, young, emerging artists who are gaining momentum in galleries, participating in public events and completing personal projects of note. Our goal is to support and publicize their endeavors to as many people as possible. We do this by attending and covering shows, events, art fairs, auctions, interviewing artists and collectives, and reviewing publications and films for those who want to gain further knowledge. tasj is different from other art publications because it is free. People can sign up for a free annual subscription. We mail copies to anyone anywhere in the world. We also do not compromise our content by accepting money from galleries or artists to place them in the paper. The art people read about is the art we believe is important and makes a difference. Deliverables: 20,000 copies of a 20 page full color art journal every month delivered around the world for the next six months.
How will the 50K be Used?
$18,000 – Printing 20,000 copies of 20 page full-color tabloid-style newspaper
$30,000 – Monthly distribution and postage for 20,000 copies
$2000 – Miscellaneous office expenses and production costs
So if you think that sound like a good project (I do), just vote for it online. It only takes a few seconds.
should be released on March 2nd.
