...it doesn't rate a
news article in the 'Daily Fail':
The elusive aerosol painter has caused outrage by covering up a piece of graffiti that had remained untouched since it was painted in 1985.
Its creator, Robbo, a hugely respected graffiti artist (Ed: nope, me neither...), immediately retaliated by spraying his name over Banksy's painting of a workman on a wall in North London.
They are both just vandals, after all.
The row has sparked a war of words on photography website Flickr, where Robbo and his associates and artists from around Britain have voiced their disgust at Banksy's act of disrespect.
*sigh*
The enigmatic artist, whose identity is still unconfirmed, is now thought to be a millionaire thanks to his popularity amongst the art community and celebrities alike.
In 2005, Christina Aguilera bought an original depiction of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000.
Says it all, doesn't it?
Robbo looks like a glorified tagger to me. Better than average maybe, but just spraying Robbo on a wall with a bit more talent than run of the mill train defacers doesn't do much for me. Banksy's stuff, on the other hand, often has something worth saying (my personal favourite Banksy, that one). In a strict legal sense it's certainly vandalism where he doesn't have the building owner's permission, which I imagine is most of the time, and obviously that's tricky to square with a belief in property rights. If he'd just stick to government owned buildings paid for with money they took by force then I'd be happy.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of thing swings both ways. Councils that remove graffiti without the property owners consent are equally guilty of vandalism.
ReplyDelete"If he'd just stick to government owned buildings paid for with money they took by force then I'd be happy."
ReplyDeleteWell, true. But then us taxpayers would fork out for the cleaning of them too.
They get you coming AND going, these days...
"This kind of thing swings both ways. Councils that remove graffiti without the property owners consent are equally guilty of vandalism."
Wasn't there a big fuss about this a few months ago?