Seems like all NY media are fixated on Banksy, NMTE. Suddenly every piece of street art downtown’s being fixated on with attribution speculations abounding. The comments sections of blogs (regrettably not ours — we need to have a lurker amnesty post soon!) bristle with debates about the more identifiable points of his style.
Gawker, Gothamist, and the Times report on the above mural, which went up earlier in the week in SoHo (Wooster and Grand). One of the painter’s girlfriend (as reported on another blog) told a passerby that Jeffrey Deitch had something to do with it.
The super cool SuperTouch blog smells another rat a few blocks away, on Broadway just above Canal; they report that Banksy’s gone legit, rented the wall space, and hired a painting crew to put these up:
Of course this has raised the eyebrows of the worldwide legion of the
Banksy faithful that follow the Bristol Bad Boy’s every clandestine
move with baited breath. Has Sir Banks given up his usual M.O. in favor
of going legit? Has he made so much money that it’s safer to rent space
and hire commercial painters than bomb? Is he qualified to run for Vice
President of the USA?
Probably not. But if he were, we hope he’d be wise enough not to follow Cheney’s Imperial Vice Presidency lead, unlike another candidate we could name …
And speaking of street art and politics: The Times also has a piece this week about Shepard Fairey, of Obey Giant fame. (I’ve always thought it looked more like Nixon than like Andre the Giant, myself.) Mr. Fairey, of course, is responsible for the best political art of this presidential season, beating out even MBW’s SuperObama:
Recent Comments