Paragon Posted October 31, 2007 Banksy's yellow lines graffiti throws gauntlet down on Town Hall red tape 31 October 2007 GRAFFITI 'street' artist Banksy has thrown down the gauntlet to Town Hall bosses who threatened to remove his work if he used his paint brushes or spray can around London's East End. His latest work (pictured above) has appeared on the wall of an East End working men's club just a week after Tower Hamlets council hit the headlines when it declared 'war' on the maverick painter. It could be him. Any graffiti and would be removed pronto, the authority warned. But Banksy proved elusive as his newest work appeared at dawn on Sunday (Oct-28) on a wall the council doesn't own. The wall is part of Bethnal Green Working Men's club, which insisted it was not up to the council to remove it. Club secretary Steve Smorthit told the East London Advertiser: "They can't get rid of it... it's our property!" His verdict on the art? "It's all right... it's no bother." Club manager Warren Dent was contacted by email for permission to put 'street art' on the wall. "It was quite a casual email," Warren recalls. "But it was all very hush-hush... somebody visited us and it was all kept secretive." The finished work shows double yellow lines in Pollard Street being extended across the pavement to the wall to form a giant yellow flower on the side of the club building. A stencilled image of a street painter sits beneath its petals. Banksy is secretive about his identity. But he is thought to have been snapped by a passer-by at work early Sunday who sent the image to the BBC. The 'graffiti guerrilla' climbed scaffolding to paint a huge yellow flower on the wall and the image of the painter. Tower Hamlets council's cabinet member for 'environment' matters, Abdal Ullah, declared 'war' on Banksy two weeks ago by threatening to wipe out his work if it appears in the East End. "I don't care if people think it's art," he told the Advertiser at the time. "One man's art is another man's vandalism." But the Town Hall today (Oct-31) thought twice about it after Banksy's latest escapade hit TV and national press. A statement to the Advertiser says: "In this case, Banksy has sought permission from the owners of the privately-owned building. "But we need to look at the double yellow lines as we have a legal obligation to reinstate the bit which has been painted out." The double yellow lines haven't actually been "painted out," but rather extended onto the pavement. Meanwhile, Banksy's work has attracted admiring glances from East Enders passing by who have been snapping it on their mobile phone cameras. Source Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Che -Guevara Posted October 31, 2007 This hardly could be called a controversy. Just buch of self-indulgent folks pissing off your local aldermen. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paragon Posted October 31, 2007 ^^Yup and overbearing as well. Good news is the artist's work has now gone up in value. Any of his pieces are now valued at over hundred thousand pounds. NY Times: Gotcha! Frobes:Banking on Banksy The artist of the moment is Banksy. Fifty-one pieces by the British graffiti artist hit the auction block last week in London. A feeding frenzy ensued. "Di Faced Tenners," a print of relatively modest value with a pre-auction estimate of only £5,000 to £7,000, sold at Bonham’s for £24,000, triple the high end. Five other Banksy works doubled or nearly doubled their top estimates, including "Untitled, Rat and Sword," a cheeky critique of the British legal system. "Di Faced Tenners" is a screenprint of 10-pound notes (or tenners) with the face of the late Princess Diana in place of Queen Elizabeth II. The satirical edge is typical of Banksy whose works frequently take on politics, culture and ethics. “Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the Banksy phenomena is neither his meteoric rise, nor the substantial sums of money that his art now commands," Gareth Williams of Bonham’s commented, "but that as a self-confessed guerrilla artist, he has been so wholeheartedly embraced by the very establishment he satirizes. We are sure that this irony is not lost on today's buyers." The record auction price for Banksy was set this month at Sotheby’s in London for "The Rude Lord," a painting done in an Old Master-style, featuring a gentleman with his middle finger raised. The auction sale price was £322,900 ($662,000). Artfact Analysis: Few people had heard of Banksy before 2004 and to this day his real identity remains a mystery. He achieved mainstream notoriety after committing a series of “hang and run” pranks in which he snuck his paintings into New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, Paris' Louvre, London's Tate Modern and The British Museum. Banksy's first show in the United States held in September 2006 in a Los Angeles warehouse attracted more than 30,000 visitors. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are among the celebrities who are serious collectors of his work. Banksy's art is a lesson in Economics 101. His works are scare, so prices are high. Much of Banksy’s work is done on exterior walls, often times on public property, thus there are few traditional works available to buy, carry home and hang on the wall. Earlier this month officials in East London said that they will be painting over Banksy murals on walls in their area, as they consider them vandalism. An ironic, art world twist sure to be appreciated by Banksy, but probably not by his fans. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Che -Guevara Posted November 1, 2007 Who's overbearing? This was guerilla marketing move on his part, and it paid off. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
