Thursday, 26 April 2007

Banksy Up And Up

Banksy - Self-portraitYesterday in London, Bonhams auctioned four Banksy artworks, two of which broke the old record price for a Banksy: £102,000. Space Girl And Bird (title link) went under the hammer for £288,000 - 20 times its estimated value - and a jokey Self-portrait (shown) fetched £198,000 from a US buyer.

8 Comments:

At 1/5/07, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Banksy has officially left the building.

 
At 2/5/07, Blogger jafabrit said...

Is it the art or the brand that is selling it?

This old jafagirl is going to have to get her jafa arse out there and become a brand. You think it will work ;)

Be gentle LOL!

 
At 2/5/07, Blogger Unknown said...

Gone through the roof maybe, from jumping with joy at the prices?

 
At 2/5/07, Blogger Unknown said...

Oh, it's got it's comments out of order again.
Hi Jafabrit
I don't think it's a brand thing. It's innovation. Banksy has bypassed the normal gallery routine and has given his art to the world. (Try my tasty new freebie and buy later if you get hooked.) People are getting hooked on the idea of a sort of Robin Hood of modern art, daring to do what no other recognized artist has done before. And so far he hasn't been caught! So there's a good mystery story too. But it's now been done, so that means coming up with a new idea! Graffiti basket weaving with bread for the poor? Don't ask me; I'm just a blogger.

 
At 3/5/07, Blogger jafabrit said...

sigh! I will just keep blogging away then :)

I do enjoy banksy!

 
At 4/5/07, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi again, Jafabrit
I've had a rethink since my last comment, and regarding yourself as a brand isn't a bad idea.
The problem with artists is they want to sell their art for its own sake. A year as a messenger boy in a sleazy little art studio when I first left school disillusioned me of the romantic idea of art for art's sake.
In the commercial world, art is there to sell a product. That's all it's worth. If it sells the product, it's good; if it doesn't, forget it.
To adopt this approach, you need to think of yourself not as an artist but as a can of baked beans. Then ask yourself "How do I use my art to sell the product Jafabrit?"
So, I think you're right. Banksy has used his art to sell the product Banksy! He's treated his art as though it's worthless and has given it away. Weirdly, the more he gives away, the more the brand Banksy rises in value.
Look at Picasso. It's the brand Picasso that commands such huge sums of money, not the tripe he painted. These are merely examples of brand Picasso, and they're worth a fortune as such.

 
At 31/5/07, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi,

Just seen an ebay item advertising a 'this is not a plastic bag', with a suggestion that this might be an original by Banksy, although to be fair the seller points out there is no first hand provenance.

Has anyone got any comments on the item in question. e.g. Does it look light it might be original?

Just type 'banksy bag' into the ebay search engine, or indeed google, where it appears as the first item at the moment.

Rgds

 
At 31/5/07, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi, Chaos (reminds me of an old FTL Atari ST game I used to play: Dungeon Master: Chaos Strikes Back).

That Banksy bag sounds suspicious to me. I'll have a look....

 

Post a Comment

<< Home