

The Story Behind Banksy - rsobers
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The-Story-Behind-Banksy-187953941.html

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austenallred
It's also worth watching the film "Exit through the giftshop" on Netflix. Goes
over Banksy in decent depth, as well as some other famous street artists.

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muhfuhkuh
That was such a fascinating movie. Hopefully not spoiling much of it, but the
way the subject of the documentary seesaws from Banksy to "the director" and
back was really interesting.

I'm not sure what to believe by the end of that documentary, but it sure was a
wild ride.

~~~
sharkweek
I think that was the best part; the debate among friends at the end as to
_what_ we actually just watched

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damian2000
His work is awesome, but I'd argue the fact he can sell a red phone box
chopped in half for $605,000 makes him part of the art establishment, not
against it.

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muhfuhkuh
But, he didn't ask for that; he just put it out there and let the art world
have at it. The fact that most of his preferred canvas is illegal (and by that
nature, ephemeral) makes him firmly anti-establishment.

~~~
rhizome
Absolutely. A stencil on the side of a building is fundamentally unsellable
(though walls have been preserved/sold before).

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bhickey
Nice of them not to mention Blek le Rat (<http://bleklerat.free.fr/>)

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analog
They don't mention that he went to an expensive public school either.

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jhull
what difference does it make?

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keithpeter
Sensible question. Here is an attempt at a bit of an answer.

In the UK, the 'public' schools are actually private and the more famous ones
charge a _lot_ of money. They are also registered charities which annoys some
other people trying to run real charities (the ones that help poor people),
but that means there are a few places made available on a scholarship basis at
little or no cost.

A good public school has small classes (8 to 12), individual attention, and
focuses on the development of what they call 'character' in the pupils. The
result is an education that provides considerable self-confidence (sometimes
misplaced by the way) and self-reliance.

When you think about it, an ideal education for an individualist social
critic. Whose career can then be presented as 'eccentric' and thus the threat
immunised.

~~~
speik
> Whose career can then be presented as 'eccentric' and thus the threat
> immunised.

This is the part I don't understand. Who is immunizing? His critics? Or his
work is immunized by having gone to public school?

Seems to me that what he chose to do as an adult should not be discounted
because of where he went to school as a child. From the article, and what else
I know of Banksy, it sounds like he is a very self-made person. As you pointed
out, it also sounds like his early education gave him the skills to see the
absurdity and hypocrisy in the world and address it creatively. Why is that a
bad thing?

I'm confused.

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keithpeter
I am spinning a speculative argument here. I'm not defending this seriously,
but just constructing a possible answer to the question posed in the parent
post by jhull.

I'm suggesting that people who have an English public school type education
are less likely to engage in organised political action that is oppositional
to the current arrangements than those who have not had that education. The
immunisation comes from the presentation of Banksy as a lone and mysterious
eccentric by publications such as the Smithsonian Magazine. That would be
harder if there was an organised Banksy posse with a programme who ran summer
schools &c

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equilibrium
interesting rivalry between Banksy and Robbo
<http://www.banksy.co.uk/QA/camden/camden4.html#>

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miketucker
anyone else notice the inconsistency?

the final image:
<http://www.banksy.co.uk/QA/camden/Images_Large/photo13-2.jpg>

contains the feet from:
<http://www.banksy.co.uk/QA/camden/Images_Large/photo6.jpg>

but this was supposedly painted over in:
<http://www.banksy.co.uk/QA/camden/Images_Large/photo8.jpg>

perhaps this is actually the final image in the series:
<http://www.banksy.co.uk/QA/camden/Images_Large/photo12.jpg>

~~~
web64
The final image
(<http://www.banksy.co.uk/QA/camden/Images_Large/photo13-2.jpg>) you are
referring to is actually a paste-up made from photoshopping together different
images.

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/pranksy/6564545965/in/photostre...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/pranksy/6564545965/in/photostream)

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lylemckeany
Warning: A little shameless self-promotion coming.

I wrote a blog post called What Street Artists Can Teach Us About Marketing,
[http://www.lylemckeany.com/2012/11/05/what-street-artists-
ca...](http://www.lylemckeany.com/2012/11/05/what-street-artists-can-teach-us-
about-marketing/)

When doing some of the research for it, I came across this great quote from
Banksy:

>We can’t do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the
meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.

