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ioana_cis's review against another edition
4.0
Good collection of his art and nice stories around it. I would have wanted to learn more about the artist for a full 5 *
vudemn's review against another edition
4.0
Benksija mnoge stvari odvajaju od drugih grafiti umetnika. Nepoznat identitet, slojevitost u radovima koja ne ide samo u pravcu kreativnosti već i u dubini značenja koje se nazire u svakom radu, svakom stencilu, crtežu, preradi, farbanju. Benksi jeste misterija, ali to je ono što daje šmek njegovim radovima, jer se vidi prava namera - da obelodani istinu, i da isprlja sve koji je izbegavaju. U ovoj knjizi su uglavnom prikazani njegovi radovi, poznati i manje poznati, i svi su povezani jednim motivom - istinom. Neki ljudi smatraju da jedna laž ne čini promenu, da je to prolaznost, ispad, pokušaj inovativnosti, ali nisu u pravu. Jedna laž menja sve, jer kada onaj koji je nju trpeo shvati da se ona javila, onda nikada više neće verovati u potpunu istinitost onog čoveka koji je izrekao tu laž isprva. Benksi tako sumnja na čitav svet, jer čitav svet laže, i upravo radom se bori protiv tih laži.
asiaroth's review against another edition
4.0
ya he’s just another overhyped white guy but he makes interesting art which starts important conversations. worth the read
freshkatsu's review against another edition
3.0
Disclaimer: Haters are not cool. I'm not 'hating' Banksy because it's the hipster thing to do (go grab an art school undergrad, you'll see what I mean). One problem with reviewing solo-artist art book is that you can't avoid talking about the actual artist, so here it is. I can't even be bothered to write about graphics. I mean, surely you're only considering buying this book because of the guy not the pretty layout right?
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Why do people like Banksy?
It seems like people either hate him or love him, and not the traditional oh-he's-so-controversial-edgy-can't-possibly-be-in-between kind. 'Serious' practicing artists loathe this guy because 1) he's an auction babe and 2) non-'serious' artists love him. His fellow graffiti artists have similarly divided opinion about him, ranging from the Robbo Vs. Banksy hatred to admiring him as the God of stencil art. A couple years ago when he first started doing those gallery stunts where he sneaked his own work in major museums (Brooklyn, MoMA etc) in that masked Sherlock Holmes outfit, I thought 'why, this guy is not a popular artist, what he's doing is clearly conceptual and bravo to someone who is expanding the boundary of performance art!'. Over the years as he got more public attention, Banksy became more reserved and civilised in the media. There is a trend in the rising street artists where the stereotypical persona of the rough, I'm-from-the-hood attitude is discarded for a safe, white bourgeoisie irony of look-I'm-fiddling-with-something-cool-and-dangerous-but-remember-drugs-and-alcohol-are-bad-for-you-kids! Remember Twilight? Remember how bad-ass things were actually bad-ass, but now the symbol of rebellious angsty anti-authority icons are either Gossip Girls or Jersey Shore? (excluding ironic Che references)
What Banksy does is arguably beneficial to the art community, in a way that he exposes the traditional obscure and anonymous operation of street artists to a wider audience. But he IS Edgy, Dangerous and c00l, you might say, look at what he did in Palenstine! Paris Hilton CDs! See, Banksy works best with a contextual focus rather than technical originality. In terms of fame and money, yes he makes a lot of those but he is by no means the first one (haters, please remember Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons are still out there). Andre, Basquiat and a bunch of other artists have benefited from the popularity of street art by boxing it into Sotheby's home. If you want to be more extreme, you can even argue Banksy isn't an artist at all. What he does is make statements and provoke his audience through civic sentiments. He is not consciously creating art. Even traditional graffiti tags have a narcissistic quality that is unique to art.
Similar to Twilight, Banksy is another subject I avoid talking about. Yes, he's a serious artist and interesting phenomenon but many of his fans are obnoxious in labeling him as an academic artists because of this political nature and somewhat 'unconventional' genre. Banksy never publicly denounced other 'sell out' street or shock artists and I respect his unpretentiousness. Of course, people say 'well, I don't care if you're only into those 'serious' minimalists, abstract-nobody-except-your-art-professor-understands or installation art, Banksy is too cool for "definition"'. However, you can't discuss the artistic merit of Banksy without including him in the circle, an exact contradiction to his principle. Well, now that he's widely accepted in the art crowd (I'm sure he doesn't have a problem with it, considering his generous rise in pay check) only complicates the matter. Is he still a serious 'street' artist? Sure he works with the same medium and similar themes, but his works are getting safer and more political for politic's sake. It is a shame considering the artistic merit of his works (although that is also debatable, some graffiti artists consider stencil art contrived. Personally I believe efficiency is important due to street art's, well, illicit nature of production)
It is perhaps unfair to hate on Banksy for all the above reasons. After all, can you name one popular artist who hasn't been called a phony in recent years? The point I'm trying to make is that if you're serious about art, or street art for that matter, Banksy is merely credible and nothing unusual beyond that. Banksy is not 1) breaking new grounds, or rather, not that 'new' in the course of art history 2) technically/structurally innovative 3) authentic just because he works on the street and break laws and shit. I'm not saying he's not a good artist (if such thing exists), but I'm just going to avoid the next person that calls him the greatest 'artist' in the century, not that Banksy himself, I imagine, would care about this anyway, so why should you?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why do people like Banksy?
It seems like people either hate him or love him, and not the traditional oh-he's-so-controversial-edgy-can't-possibly-be-in-between kind. 'Serious' practicing artists loathe this guy because 1) he's an auction babe and 2) non-'serious' artists love him. His fellow graffiti artists have similarly divided opinion about him, ranging from the Robbo Vs. Banksy hatred to admiring him as the God of stencil art. A couple years ago when he first started doing those gallery stunts where he sneaked his own work in major museums (Brooklyn, MoMA etc) in that masked Sherlock Holmes outfit, I thought 'why, this guy is not a popular artist, what he's doing is clearly conceptual and bravo to someone who is expanding the boundary of performance art!'. Over the years as he got more public attention, Banksy became more reserved and civilised in the media. There is a trend in the rising street artists where the stereotypical persona of the rough, I'm-from-the-hood attitude is discarded for a safe, white bourgeoisie irony of look-I'm-fiddling-with-something-cool-and-dangerous-but-remember-drugs-and-alcohol-are-bad-for-you-kids! Remember Twilight? Remember how bad-ass things were actually bad-ass, but now the symbol of rebellious angsty anti-authority icons are either Gossip Girls or Jersey Shore? (excluding ironic Che references)
What Banksy does is arguably beneficial to the art community, in a way that he exposes the traditional obscure and anonymous operation of street artists to a wider audience. But he IS Edgy, Dangerous and c00l, you might say, look at what he did in Palenstine! Paris Hilton CDs! See, Banksy works best with a contextual focus rather than technical originality. In terms of fame and money, yes he makes a lot of those but he is by no means the first one (haters, please remember Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons are still out there). Andre, Basquiat and a bunch of other artists have benefited from the popularity of street art by boxing it into Sotheby's home. If you want to be more extreme, you can even argue Banksy isn't an artist at all. What he does is make statements and provoke his audience through civic sentiments. He is not consciously creating art. Even traditional graffiti tags have a narcissistic quality that is unique to art.
Similar to Twilight, Banksy is another subject I avoid talking about. Yes, he's a serious artist and interesting phenomenon but many of his fans are obnoxious in labeling him as an academic artists because of this political nature and somewhat 'unconventional' genre. Banksy never publicly denounced other 'sell out' street or shock artists and I respect his unpretentiousness. Of course, people say 'well, I don't care if you're only into those 'serious' minimalists, abstract-nobody-except-your-art-professor-understands or installation art, Banksy is too cool for "definition"'. However, you can't discuss the artistic merit of Banksy without including him in the circle, an exact contradiction to his principle. Well, now that he's widely accepted in the art crowd (I'm sure he doesn't have a problem with it, considering his generous rise in pay check) only complicates the matter. Is he still a serious 'street' artist? Sure he works with the same medium and similar themes, but his works are getting safer and more political for politic's sake. It is a shame considering the artistic merit of his works (although that is also debatable, some graffiti artists consider stencil art contrived. Personally I believe efficiency is important due to street art's, well, illicit nature of production)
It is perhaps unfair to hate on Banksy for all the above reasons. After all, can you name one popular artist who hasn't been called a phony in recent years? The point I'm trying to make is that if you're serious about art, or street art for that matter, Banksy is merely credible and nothing unusual beyond that. Banksy is not 1) breaking new grounds, or rather, not that 'new' in the course of art history 2) technically/structurally innovative 3) authentic just because he works on the street and break laws and shit. I'm not saying he's not a good artist (if such thing exists), but I'm just going to avoid the next person that calls him the greatest 'artist' in the century, not that Banksy himself, I imagine, would care about this anyway, so why should you?
btwmiguel's review against another edition
3.0
Un libro de imagenes con algunas ideas de Bansky entre ellos. Sólo por leer la parte sobre como las empresas tomarón el espacio vale la pena.
dorisxdw's review against another edition
4.0
“There’s no way you’re going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover” - Metropolitan Police spokesperson
This is on the back of the book and pretty much says it all. What a brilliant book!!
This is on the back of the book and pretty much says it all. What a brilliant book!!