
The Deal of the Art - prismatic
https://thebaffler.com/the-immediate-experience/the-deal-of-the-art-sturgeon
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l33tbro
> The difference now is that the variables that determine art’s monetary value
> are no longer seen as dicey. Instead, they’re understood as art itself.

"The new job of art is to sit on the wall and get more expensive." \- Robert
Hughes (1982, The Shock of The New)

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motohagiography
How is it his fault? He's done nothing but antagonize and mock the "art
world," and it just loves the abuse. He's been co-opted as an official court
jester only because the alternatives are to ignore him (costly) or discredit
him (improbable).

The most cynical view of his work would be that it is just a set of counter-
signals that serve to demonstrate his superiority while knocking the ladder
away behind him, as anyone who imitated him would quickly select out. Lots of
artists and musicians behave badly to show they are so good that people will
even tolerate their latest outrage. Hand, neck and face tattoos seem to be the
current fashionable follower trap.

It's arguably the same dynamic behind programmers who affect rebel and working
class values and ideals. As if to say, "I'm so talented I don't need to
demonstrate alignment to the people who keep me in the style to which I've
become accustomed."

I like Banksy's work a lot, and I don't think even he is this cynical, mainly
because he does still risk arrest and jail for vandalism, but he's created
something with a life of its own of which he is no longer in control. In that
way as an artist, he could very much be seen to have succeeded.

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zimpenfish
> "Banksy is the Thomas Kinkade of his generation."

Oof, that'll leave a mark.

~~~
at-fates-hands
Way back in the day when nobody had heard of Banksy I thought his stenciling
was so original and unique. One of the first websites of his I remember him
showing how to create stencils, some backstories on his art and how he got
them done, etc. It was really cool to have such an inside track with a then
very underground scene and artist doing something really original I had never
seen.

Fast forward 15 years and everything he stood against, everything he mocked,
he has now become a part of. The recent Sotheby's shredder stunt is only the
most recent example. He took an expensive piece of his own art, and increased
the value ten fold by doing what he did.

I used to love the guy, now he's just another money grubbing scum who can't
seem to get enough of the spotlight.

~~~
sarreph
> now he's just another money grubbing scum who can't seem to get enough of
> the spotlight.

You clearly have much more of a direct personal experience / knowledge of
Banksy's history than I do, but I feel as though he's using the _spotlight_ in
order to make a point about how money-hungry the modern art world has become.
Yes, you could take the cynical side and assume he really is just doing these
'exposure-stunts' as a way to make more money, but I'd like to believe he
still stands for his anti-establishment message.

As an aside, I thought much of his art (especially vandalism) doesn't actually
belong to him, and he doesn't see the proceeds.

~~~
at-fates-hands
> As an aside, I thought much of his art (especially vandalism) doesn't
> actually belong to him, and he doesn't see the proceeds.

Actually his pieces regularly go up for auction and rake in hundreds of
thousands of dollars.

Here's a short list of just the most expensive ones to date:

[https://www.widewalls.ch/10-most-expensive-banksy-
artworks-a...](https://www.widewalls.ch/10-most-expensive-banksy-artworks-at-
auctions/)

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lucio
So the the amorphous "commercial" blob Banksy despises won this round

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paulgrant999
Art is about smuggling wealth. Influence on pricing, is about cashing out.

Tomorrow if sotheby's put a giant turd on sale and declares it worth millions,
people looking to launder will buy it, knowing that when they need to cash
out, sotheby's will come to the rescue.

Wake up.

