The Controversy of Bansky
Perhaps one of the most alluring aspects of Banksy’s are is the mysterious anonymity of its creator. According to Wikipedia, Bansky is a pseudonym for a English based artist, political activist, film director and, and painter. Careful in this wording is “England-based” rather than English. Bansky does not reveal his actual name to the public nor does he make public appearances. This ethereal quality is exciting for his fans, but not everyone in the art community has an appreciation for Banksy and his work has also been the spark of a lot of controversy both in the art community and by city officials who see vandalism instead of art.
In Michiko Kakutani’s New Your Times article about Banksy title “Stalking a Most Prolific Phantom” he defines the common thread connecting and defining a Bansky is a “coy playfulness — a desire to goad viewers into rethinking their surroundings, to acknowledge the absurdities of closely held preconceptions” (Kakutani,1).
Banksy is called the most “wanted artist” in England, a play on words that also nods to the illegal nature of his work. One controversy with the law was when he distributed 10 pounds notes with a picture of Princess Diana instead of the queen of England. As it is illegal to deface or print currency, this raised the eyes of authorities. (Flavorwire,1).
Bansky has received a negative criticism from the organization Keep Brittian Tidy, which says that graffiti art “blights communities” (Youtube). They think Bansky is an anti-social vandal.
Another act that caused controversy was when Paris Hilton released an album. Presumably working with proxies, he distributed 500 doctored copies in almost 50 record stores with a picture of the singer topless or with the ead of one of her pet dogs (Flavorwire, 2).
Ostensibly, Banksy’s illusiveness is to avoid prosecution from acts that are technically illegal. But some critics think that it is all a marketing ploy. According to Kakutani’s New York Times article, “critics have increasingly pointed out that Banksy has used anonymity as a marketing device, as another tool in his arsenal of publicity high jinks to burnish his own mystique” (Kakutani, 1). The themes explored by Bansky in his worky is also a source of controversy since his subjects are highly political and they include two male police officers kissing, Winston Churchill sporting a Mohawk, and they are also often very critical of war, such as a stunt where he put a manikin of a Guantanamo bay detainee in the fence of a Disney land roller coaster (The New Yorker, 1). As much as he has gained recognition from the art community, he has also gotten the outrage of museum curators for smuggling his works into the Louvre, the Tate, and the Natural History Museum. He has his own criticisms for the art world though, saying via proxies and his website and books things like, “The art world is the biggest joke going.” He called it a “rest home” for the overprivildged.” (The New Yorker, 1).
The New Yorker article on him said that he seemed to revel in the mystery of his persona. Despite his critics who would be happy if Bansky never arrived on the seen, he has become an artist who grew to fame relatively quickly and will be memorialized as an important artistic voice of his time.
Works Cited:
Colins, Lauren . "Dept. of Popular Culture: Banksy Was Here : The New Yorker." The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/14/070514fa_fact_collins>.
Kakutani, Machiko. "âBanksy - The Man Behind the Wall,â by Will Ellsworth-Jones - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/books/banksy-the-man-behind-the-wall-by-will-ellsworth-jones.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.
"The Best Banksy Controversies So Far – Flavorwire." Flavorwire. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2013. <http://flavorwire.com/82934/the-best-banksy-controversies-so-far/4/>.
"banksy - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e0IJSOq0xg>.
