Banksy- a bit meh really?

[Greenleavesawash]

AIBU - but isn’t it really all a bit mediocre now (not that it was ever anything else)?

It’s a perfectly good newspaper op-ed cartoon. That’s all.

You can look at a Banksy and a Van Dyck, and enjoy both. It’s not an either or.

It’s a perfectly good newspaper op-ed cartoon. That’s all.

I was just coming on to say pretty much exactly this. Definitely meh.

@RickOShay, in contemporary art, people like Agnes Martin, Frank Auerbach, Dan Flavin, Louise Bourgeois, Luc Tuymans — loads I can’t think of.

I like him/her. The artwork he/she does is always very poignant and the air of mystery is refreshing in an age where everyone is boring each other to death with the minutiae of their lives. The latest work was very thought provoking. It shows that the NHS are our heroes but how temporary that feeling is. It’s obvious that eventually the boy in the picture will want his old super heroes back again. Our gratitude won’t unfortunately last forever and we will worship the less deserving again.

Then only reason his art is worth so much is cos no one knows who he/she is. Except the media must know their real identity but for some reason keep schtum although the mail did run an article a few years back about it being Robin Gunn. You can't keep anything secret in this day and age with social media.

I love Banksy. Very clever and funny, with a real sense of conscience too. There's a Banksy artwork on a wall in a nearby village here and I love seeing it when we drive past. If that makes me an idiot, then I'm OK with that.

Thing about Monet, van Dyke, and all the others... They literally were the bansky of their day.

The establishment did not like their work. It was porn, abstract, weird, not proper art! Yep that and more was slung at them, and their work didn't sell that well. No one wanted to pay much if they did sell them.

I mean, who wants a wonky drawing of some sunflowers in a badly drawn case? Oh, now you do, cos it's worth millions. 100/200 years ago, you'd have been alone in wanting it.

It was only 20 years ago someone paid a million for half a cow, or millions for an unmade bed!
Or that idiot that bought a strip light.

So today, the main big thing is STREET ART, not graffiti (scrawling initials etc on a wall or even over art, or a street sign). Now the "fogies" don't get IT! whatever IT is‽

Bansky does some amazing art, and some do even better (locally we have lots of street artists) even if some is very political.

I went to the bansky exhibition, and it was really interesting and some quite thought provoking, some I agree was a bit rubbish.

His take on constable's haywain, was really good and made you realise what we're doing to the countryside.

To just rubbish his art, cos YOU don't get it, is fine, but admit you don't get it, and not say it's crap.

I did a HND in Photography, and at the end of each assignment, we put.our work on the wall, no one was allowed to say... That's crap, or brilliant, without saying WHY.

I continue that method today on art, TV, film, whatever I give an opinion on.

I think the best modern art provokes debate. So, he's clearly doing something right. Also, I like the nhs piece. I like how it can be looked at from a surface 'NHS as superheroes' angle, but also the presence of the bin suggests disposability and the risk of the NHS being 'rubbished' again once the child tires of his plaything.

Banksy is a vandal. He should be brought before the courts.

Blimey my FIL is on Mumsnet.

Apparently as a modern artist one kicks against the the establishment of the art world. The more one kicks, the more you are accepted into the establishment, as you have broken new boundaries.

I never really got the hype, tbh.

All he has done is graffiti and he should be prosecuted like everyone else who does it

Banksy's a political cartoonist. I like his stuff, makes a wry chuckle most times, but the adulation is eye-rolling.

I like him and appreciate his art.

I like it but he is way behind one of my towns local artists on this one.
She has been decorating the town for months using this theme already.

Van Dyck? He's not a genius. "Marree Pappens". Awful.

I suspect you are Banksy trying to throw us off the scent.

I’m a graphic designer. He’s basically one too, and a very good one. He uses what we designers call visual language. Magazine illustrators do what he does 24/7. Visual puns are his schtick. Puns are the lowest form of wit of course. Clever positioning got him where he is but I wouldn’t even compare him to the YBAs in terms of talent. So to sum up, completely overrated.

I think the it hasn’t really moved on though, it’s just the same stuff regurgitated again. It used to be creative, it’s all a bit similar these days.

So what if it's "lowest common denominator" - if it's accessible and gets people talking, why not?

I think it's visually clever and who's saying everything has to be Monet? There are all kinds of art and I don't get the snobbery over which "type" is accessible (although I'm not surprised by it on a site where people describe having a trampoline in their front gardens or chalk drawings as "common").

*which "type" is acceptable

Yabu. Go to Bristol and look at the varied street art there by many different artists. Ages ago it my Dds art teacher set them a street art project with the brief that it must not be the street artist from Bristol. Dd intentionally chose one from Bristol

I liked the Kids On Gun Hill - still of woman who bought it for $30 when he did a pop-up as I would have bought it as a tourist (then auctioned it when I found out it was original because it would pay for my end terrace but then would have rebought a copy or made my own!)
So, cliche that I am, I liked that one, the girl with a balloon one and the recent Valentines one. Think they were all simple but sweet - would have been gutted to see the middle one self-destruct and the latter get graffitied.
As to the NHS one, it's a lovely gesture.