A guerrilla artist qualified for the art A-League
Last October, Sotheby’s Paris-to-London remote auction of Modernités saw Banksy’s ‘Show Me The Monet’ net over £7.5 million and secure its future into the hands of an Asian collector.
Banksy’s contemporary take on the impressionist masterpiece revolves around the incorporation of a traffic cone and two shopping trolleys dumped in what should be the infamous lily pond in the artist’s Giverny mansion.The graceless additions to the impressionist painting’s copy aim to polemicise about the indifference of consumeristic society in front of waste and environmental degradation.
It’s not the first time Banksy’s works cash dizzying digits at auction. Last year, ‘Devolved Parliament’ reached the highest amount ever hammered for the artist, sold for nearly £10M.
A tolerable amount for the work of a street artist who reportedly never craved commercial success and rather defined it as a mark of failure for a graffiti artist. …
Can an artist’s legacy be taboo in 2020?
The long-awaited retrospective ‘Philip Guston Now’ was supposed to headline at Tate Modern next year, before moving to the National Gallery in Washington and the Fine Arts Museums of Boston and Houston.
Notwithstanding the commitment to the artist and his legacy, the four host museums decided to postpone the exhibition ‘until a time at which we think that the powerful message of social and racial justice that is at the center of Philip Guston’s work can be more clearly interpreted.’ — so states the four directors’ press release of the 21st of September.
Not sure if 2024 though, as they suggest, will be the moment that generations of Miss Universe contestants have been wishing for — world peace and social justice. …
Contemporary a(rt)dversion and how to cure it
Why Contemporary Art Annoys You
The first thing I should probably reveal about myself, if I were to try my best and keep certain credibility, is that I am writing as an arts layperson. Whilst I have always been candidly partial to modern art, I have, hitherto, struggled to get along with its contemporary sibling.
What makes contemporary art seem so intellectually elitarian?
The feelings we are used to — and want to — experience in front of publicly praised art are rather a mix of astonishment, admiration and, why not, a dash of good old eye pleasure. …
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