Urban Art Graffiti goes Mainstream. What do you think?

[Jill]

This is from the Times Online:

It has that elusive cred factor, is endorsed by the likes of Brangelina, and fetches dizzying prices – there’s no mistaking the frenzy surrounding graffiti art. Still, a few eyebrows were no doubt raised at Bonhams auctioneers when it decided to host a sale of the phenomenon known as urban art. After all, this kind of work in its purest form (on the street rather than on canvas) is illegal.

However, Gareth Williams, a senior specialist in urban art at Bonhams, says its outsider status – with many of its practitioners, such as Banksy, anonymous – only adds kudos, and value. “Everyone loves a rebel, and their mystique only adds to the attraction.”

The sale includes work by the graffiti-art pioneer Keith Haring, as well as recent artists such as Paul Insect and Faile. “Their work is more accessible than some conceptual art,” says Williams. “And these artists share a political edge and a wry sense of humour, which appeals to a new generation of collectors.”

Darius Grant, the collector and Wall Street hedge-funder who owns work by the 1980s New York legend Jean-Michel Basquiat, has noticed a growing interest in urban art among his peers. “If you work in this world, you probably like taking risks, but you’re still part of the Establishment – it’s quite conservative. You can’t rebel at work, but you can buy rebellious art that’s shocking or subversive.”

This is good news for the artists – and not just in terms of sales. Those with suitable street cred are increasingly in demand in commercial spheres. Take Inkie, who made his name on the innovative Bristol scene, along with Banksy, 3D and Nick Walker. Besides his private commissions, Inkie is now head of graphics at the computer-games company Sega. He also has his own T-shirt label, Flying Eyeball. At 37, Inkie, like many on the scene, has had run-ins with the law over the years, but these days, he is based in London and no longer does anything “naughty”, as he puts it: “I’m too old, and I’ve got a job and a kid now.”

Is there a danger that commercial interest will force compromises? “It’s become a lot bigger than I imagined it would,” Inkie admits. “It does make me laugh when design agencies say they want ‘Banksy-style’ graphics.”

The urban-art ethos has always been about “reclaiming” public space, or “taking what’s ours”, as Inkie puts it – and you could argue that that’s exactly what these artists are doing now.

The Urban Art sale at Bonhams is on Tuesday

NAMING NAMES

BANKSYThe king of the urban art scene and master of the guerrilla stunt. Find his work on the streets of London, Bristol and other cities around the world, most recently, Bethlehem. A Banksy-daubed wall has sold for £208,000 on eBay, with the proviso that the purchaser remove it.

PAUL INSECT A recent solo show had to be cancelled after Damien Hirst bought the lot.

FAILE New York collective – highly collectible.

ADAM NEATE Subverted the genre by painting on cardboard and canvas and hanging these in public spaces.

TAKASHI MURAKAMI Japanese artist who fuses pop and manga imagery.

3D Aka Robert del Naja of Massive Attack, represented by the same management as Banksy

NICK WALKER Spray painting and stencils. His Moona Lisa is in the Bonhams sale.

INKIE Early innovator and creator of wild style art nouveau, much in demand

BLEK LE RAT INFLUENTIA LThe veteran French artist has inspired Banksy, among others. His works are in the Bonhams sale.

DAN BALDWIN Prints, paintings and ceramics

Have your say

Nick Walker has a show at the Carmichael Gallery La Brea Los Angeles. Paintings sold out last night - the opening night. He is the one to watch and collect!

Sean Hughes, Los Angeles, California USA

Whole article at
http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/inter...

So what do you think about this rise of urban graffiti art?

[Tina Donovan]

Banksy worked/collaborated not that long ago with the artist Gee Vaucher who designed many images for the early 80's punk band Crass. Wonder if this may have been an influence. Crass were more true to anarchic grass roots than that of the Clash and the Sex Pistols. They were a collective of DIY art as well as musicians with the hardcore political agenda all living in an open community house in Essex. Great names like Penny Rimbauld, Phil Free and Steve Ignorant, Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre (only punks had names like that didn't they. Could name a few other outlandish band titles but now is not the place). There are logos for Crass that were DIY and remind you of Banksy. Check out Southern.com for info on Crass . They also had direct action of stencilling anti-consumerist, feminist, anti-war and anarchist messages have inspired Banksy.

Banksy really is the first major street 'artist' in the sense of fine art. Although he kept his identity hidden to begin with his art made an impact statement on the human politics of our history and contemporary world today. Personally I love his work and style. Yes it is off the canvas but then so was a lot of Picasso's sculptures and paintings along with old tribal woodcarvings of long ago from other cultures. Outsider art is considered anything that is not representational in the way we understand it to be in art. Meaning replicas of what you see before you.
Banksy hits all scales off the canvas and across all dimensions of human thought, perspective, composition etc. What art history has through the ages and what a painting may depict in one go he has covered all. His geography covers religious aspects too given places like Bethlehem. Gender issues, race, and dirty politics of war and the big global corps like MacDonalds and Mickey Mouse.Pop art springs to mind too. Dubuffet who Paula Rego was influenced by for outsider art to Basquiat (with connection to Dubuffet) during the pop years to punk and the DIY and now the rise of Graffitti art in the here and now. Art defaced. But then wasn't that what Marcel Duchamp did with the Mona Lisa when he sketched a moustache over the top of a copy of the image along with Basquiat who dedicated his defacement of the Mona Lisa to an old art dealer he fell out with. Well it wouldn't be a drug dealer would it? And yet fine art history creeps in to what is grass roots street art. Up and coming from the streets into the hands of the wealthy and famous and selling for goodness how many 1000s along with the Damien Hirsts of the world.


Art today is young. And by this not in the age of the artist but in ideas. Art now is so much more than what we have all been used to from Victorians and earlier. The human race has proggressed in so many other ways now that I think to keep graffiti art out of the art history context would be wrong. If it means putting it on a canvas then so be it especially as walls are constantly being white washed. And tolerance is zero of graffiti art and artists, the likes of Banksy seem to make it more acceptable.

I always felt that the more detailed and colourful graffiti was the better. Tags are ok if you know the lingo. Coming up to London from Kent by train and seeing the graffiti on the walls by the railway lines adds some excitement to the journey and yet I beg for more. How do they get up there and tag? Or how do they manage to dodge the trains? Has anyone ever got caught doing so?
Then we get articles like that off the Times Online and the Independent on Saturday which goes indepth and photographs the urban artists.
I did research on the net for some 'urban artists' and they are all on the band wagon now. Some have impact and some do not quite hit the mark when it comes to that impact of street art making a statement. If you come across one enjoy it for a while. It is also good because graffiti artists often have a bad name for defacing a wall. But put something with a political meaning there and it changes everything.

On reading that some design agencies want a Banksy type image really contradicts the idea of Graffiti to start with. Tags are an identity like a clan or a one man tribe and why would you want to copy an identity? But then hark back to many artists of the past who actually have imitated another fellow artist. Also one of the above mentioned artists in the article tags many symbolic images like the $ sign and MacDonalds, and all the other pop cultural iconic images that have subliminal tendencies on those who are enticed by visuals and buy into a particular product. Labels and Tags... we are obseesed with signs and symbols. Here as once upon a time the Cross, a Halo, the Madonna, or Lily were the main hierarchal symbols in art (obviously religious) are now replaced and iconised by artists the mass consumerism that we are fighting against. Showing us when we choose to wake up that this world no longer want the spiritual but the material. And these artists are bringing this and these to the table for a feast for us diners to chew over.
Also places like Sotheby's and Bonhams are now going to be raking in the money for the hottest new properties because we are in a 'I want' society. Why not just enjoy the art where it was originally intended for. On the wall of a street out of the galleries and accessable to all. Unless of course you can sneak into the Tate and put one of your own paintings up. Great publicity stunt this, nice if you can pull it off. Hmmm now there's an idea. Hmmm.

I do hope that the street cred is not lost with Graffiti. But these artists need to eat too. And as Aroe a purist graffiti writer points out the art world call it urban art because it then avoids them having to seperate what is graffiti and what is street art. Graffiti is about a sub culture and respect from peers and street artists are just for the money. This said Crass are not sellouts. Their graffiti was about political statements whereby Banksy has sold in Tate, New York, and other merchandise which kind of contradicts what his art says.
Here is a passage from Aroe the graffiti writer from the Independent newspaper;

Aroe: The purist

A graffiti writer since the age of 13, Aroe makes a strong distinction between what he does and "Hoxton trendy" street artists.

"Street art and graffiti are completely different," he says. I do graffiti just for the fame and for respect from peers within my sub-culture. For those so-called street artists, it's all about money. They would be laughed off by proper graffiti artists. It's not about their work, it's their attitude. I'm not interested in galleries.

"I'm not a trained artist and I don't look at it as something noble; I'm just writing my name – although I would never damage a private house."

Aroe makes huge pieces the world over: he has covered buildings in San Francisco and Brighton and his tag adorns trains in India and Eastern Europe. This year a music festival is inviting him to Senegal, to put on a graffiti showcase and give a masterclass.

While his attitude to his art may seem radical, his life is anything but. In his late thirties, he lives in Brighton, where he has a house, a full-time job, long-term girlfriend and four children. "Me and my girlfriend have a car each," he says. "I suppose you could say it's a middle-class life, although I don't really see myself as middle class."

Tina.

[Jill]

I remember back in the middle 70s my friend Ken had a summer job organising whole walls around the town to be painted with pictures. The artist who did them was pretty good and they looked good when you were driving around the town. I think the artist was given a job to get these wall paintings done. He certainly didn't do them for free. ken had to go around to peoples houses at the end of terraces and ask their permission to paint their end walls. They usually didn't mind at all. Rather than this kind of art' being seen as a rebellion it was organised and sanctioned by the local authorities.

So I was quite surprised when graffitti became to be seen as rebellious and illegal. My experience of the wall paintings Ken organised was that they brightened up drab streets a lot. More recently in Brighton there is a big derelict office block along by Preston Park. The windows were boarded up and on each of these is a painting now. They really look good to me when you drive along by. They have been there for a few years. I think they were done for the Festival one year. I don't think I have seen the building Aroe covered in Brighton but would like to.

I think there is a place for graffiti/urban art out there on the streets but I am confused by this move into the Salesrooms and the fact it is fetching preminm prizes. For example it seems ridiculous to me for a Banksy to be sold for £250,000 on the condition the buyer moves the wall! Where will the wall go except to where people can't see it and doesn't that destroy the point of it being accessable and public. Isn't the very word graffiti synonymous with being public? The public may like the graffitti or be offended by it but at least it is there in the open for the opinions to be formed. To hide graffiti away in private collections just seems so much against its initial position in society.

Anyway I am quite interested to see and learn more on this and thanks for such an interesting reply Tina.

Bye for Now
Jill

[Jill]

Hi

I just got this through on a Google alert about a new Graffiti goes mainstream exhibition at the Tate Modern:

The Tate Modern museum in central London has been transformed by graffiti artists from around the world.

The riverside facade of the world's most popular modern art gallery has been covered in giant murals by six urban artists.

They include Blu from Bologna in Italy, the artist collective Faile from New York, and Sixeart from Barcelona.

It is the first display of street art at a major museum and a further sign that graffiti is taken seriously by critics and collectors.

Original work by street artists now sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds at auction and online.

Last month, the elusive urban artist Banksy organised a festival of graffiti and covered a whole street near Waterloo Station in original art.

He worked with 40 artists, including Faile, to create a huge display of stencil art which is expected to remain in the tunnel for at least the short term.

Banksy may well approve of the Tate transformation.

He wrote that graffiti "doesn't spoil buildings, in fact it's the only way to improve them".

The Tate is also offering a 'Street Art Walking Tour' of London and an interactive evening with experimental New York artists Graffiti Research Lab, using graffiti light projections to 'reface' the Tate.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357667,00.html

[Leslie Wilson-Rutterford]

Hi Jill and Everyone,
I received this info today which shows how institutional the whole topic is getting. I mean talks and walks at the Tate! There's a whole bunch more of them here. The thing is it starts to beg the question: Is street art graffiti or an installation, or site specific work? Gaud...All the best, Leslie

[Jill]

Hi Lesley

I know I get the Google alerts on Graffiti every day and the contrast between the "we must punish these terrible offenders" brigade against the "graffiti is the new black" lot keeps amusing me really! Where will it all end...?!

Bye for Now

Jill