Banksy is the name used to hide the identity of a graffiti artist from the UK in order to protect him from the any repercussions which might come from his work. Banksy became famous through using his stencilling technique to take on governments around the world using his art as a form of communicating to them. The imaginative and original way which Banksy spoke out against the establishment earned the artists huge press coverage and interest from politicians and celebrities around the world.
There has been a lot of talk recently though that due to Banksy's consistent rise to super stardom that the artist's credibility is no longer intact. A lot of the purists who have followed Banksy's work for a long time feel that he is a 'sell-out' now for a number of reasons and some of them have stopped supporting the artist.
A lot of Banksy's pieces have now started to sell at auctions for huge sums of money and this is one of the reasons that his credibility has come into question. The artist is well-known now by celebrities from all around the world and many of them are buying up any piece of his work which they can. This has led people to say that Banksy is creating art for profit now and not to provoke a change anymore. Banksy started out as artist very much on the wrong side of the law, creating graffiti on buildings and sneaking his own work into elite museums, more recently he has started organising exhibits though much like most other artists.
Then came the film 'Exit through the gift shop' which only added fuel to the fire for the Banksy sceptics. For such a secretive artist, being in a film albeit disguised was an unusual choice and one which wasn't received well by many Banksy fans. Many saw it as Banksy trying to increase his fame even further rather than to increase the impact of his work.
The argument for Banksy is that the artist still produces the same street art that he always has and if he has expanded his type of work that is purely his choice. Whether or not Banksy has profited from his art is irrelevant as the artist still produces work with good intentions and if the artist does make money from that art, it comes as a secondary benefit.
There has been a lot of talk recently though that due to Banksy's consistent rise to super stardom that the artist's credibility is no longer intact. A lot of the purists who have followed Banksy's work for a long time feel that he is a 'sell-out' now for a number of reasons and some of them have stopped supporting the artist.
A lot of Banksy's pieces have now started to sell at auctions for huge sums of money and this is one of the reasons that his credibility has come into question. The artist is well-known now by celebrities from all around the world and many of them are buying up any piece of his work which they can. This has led people to say that Banksy is creating art for profit now and not to provoke a change anymore. Banksy started out as artist very much on the wrong side of the law, creating graffiti on buildings and sneaking his own work into elite museums, more recently he has started organising exhibits though much like most other artists.
Then came the film 'Exit through the gift shop' which only added fuel to the fire for the Banksy sceptics. For such a secretive artist, being in a film albeit disguised was an unusual choice and one which wasn't received well by many Banksy fans. Many saw it as Banksy trying to increase his fame even further rather than to increase the impact of his work.
The argument for Banksy is that the artist still produces the same street art that he always has and if he has expanded his type of work that is purely his choice. Whether or not Banksy has profited from his art is irrelevant as the artist still produces work with good intentions and if the artist does make money from that art, it comes as a secondary benefit.
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