I finally got around to seeing 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' and was struck by just how talented some of the street artists are. The movie is about 'street art' and started off as an attempt to document the scene but then morphed into a movie about the person who was capturing video for this street art scene.
The interesting piece to me was how the street art scene started to be embraced by collectors and soon enough it was all the rage and premier street artist pieces were being auctioned for big money. The periphery and somewhat dismissed collection of artists were all of a sudden becoming stars.
The film eventually settles on the whacky documenter/videographer who appears to enter the art world by collaging street and pop art. He ultimately ends up putting on a show at an old abandoned building and appears to be woefully over his head as he tries to pull it altogether by opening day. Most of his art appears to be tweaks to existing concepts or pieces with this own flavor - think street art meets Andy Warhol...It brings up an interesting question of what exactly is art? This guy is a great example of someone who did not earn or pay his dues over a career, but instead made a big splash by spending a lot of $$ hiring artists to bring his vision together...in some ways, it you could argue it is not art but just a re-gurgitation or collage of existing art & styles - if that is the case, then you have to take the same analogy further to music artists who mash up other people's music and create something new in the process.
Banksy appears to be the undisputed king of the street art scene - to the point where he has even had his own shows. Initially I thought street art = graffiti but soon realized that there are legit and uber talented artists that use the street art to intelligently tell their messages that are often full of irony, humor, or sometimes just commentary on society. Banksy is not only a very talented artist but also brilliant in the sense that his art is thought-provokling with messages that hopefully make people stop for a moment and use their noggins to try and interpret what they are seeing.
The interesting piece to me was how the street art scene started to be embraced by collectors and soon enough it was all the rage and premier street artist pieces were being auctioned for big money. The periphery and somewhat dismissed collection of artists were all of a sudden becoming stars.
The film eventually settles on the whacky documenter/videographer who appears to enter the art world by collaging street and pop art. He ultimately ends up putting on a show at an old abandoned building and appears to be woefully over his head as he tries to pull it altogether by opening day. Most of his art appears to be tweaks to existing concepts or pieces with this own flavor - think street art meets Andy Warhol...It brings up an interesting question of what exactly is art? This guy is a great example of someone who did not earn or pay his dues over a career, but instead made a big splash by spending a lot of $$ hiring artists to bring his vision together...in some ways, it you could argue it is not art but just a re-gurgitation or collage of existing art & styles - if that is the case, then you have to take the same analogy further to music artists who mash up other people's music and create something new in the process.
Banksy appears to be the undisputed king of the street art scene - to the point where he has even had his own shows. Initially I thought street art = graffiti but soon realized that there are legit and uber talented artists that use the street art to intelligently tell their messages that are often full of irony, humor, or sometimes just commentary on society. Banksy is not only a very talented artist but also brilliant in the sense that his art is thought-provokling with messages that hopefully make people stop for a moment and use their noggins to try and interpret what they are seeing.
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