Sometimes, life just isn’t fair…

Lawsuit Describes ‘Blacklist’ for Collectors of Marlene Dumas – NYTimes.com.

This seems to me to be a case of simple betterthanyouism. The artists (and gallerists) see themselves as preserving the public good, encouraging collectors to hold onto artworks and eventually donate them to Museums. The collectors see themselves as, well, collectors. And like any other collector they claim they should be able to buy what they want and sell it when they want. Ok. Good.

This is true-ish in both cases. But the counter-claims (of pure and simple profiteering) are also true, and seem, to my mind, far more reasonable explanations.

But I’m not a multi-millionaire. I’m not a gallerist.

I’m merely a jilted art lover.

Government-Sponsored Graffiti? It’s not graffiti anymore.

Caracas Journal – Artists Embellish Walls With Political Visions – NYTimes.com.

…the government… supports Mr. Zerpa’s creations and the work of many other street artists, and is increasingly making them a central element of its promotion of a state ideology. Government-financed brigades of graffiti artists and muralists are blanketing this city’s walls with politicized images, ranging from crude, graffiti-tagged slogans to bold, colorful works of graphic art.

So… what are we to make of this? Street Art has gone legit. Is this anything new? As I argued in my thesis, street art is the legitimate bastard step-child of graffiti, but Venezuela is taking this to extremes.

Kudos to Mr. Zerpa (and his cohort) for obtaining government sponsorship for his street works, and kudos to the government for recognizing the (political and social) value of street art.

But don’t be talking anything about revolution or graffiti’s power to give voice to the powerless.

Now I guess I need to go off and read the whole article…

Ok. So having read the entire article (all ~200 words of it), it’s not all doom and gloom. Apparently, there remain countless scores of taggers and even a few illegal street artists. Good. But still.

On one hand, it’s great that the government has recognized the political value of street art, and the need to compensate artists for their efforts, especially when such efforts tow the party line. On the other hand, there’s something disquieting about the State providing paint and supplies–in a sense sanctioning painting on private and public property.

This will require much more thought. Jeez.

The Toxic Side of Being, Literally, Green

Via the NYT, Design – The Toxic Side of Being, Literally, Green re-published, or re-presented, or whatever from the International Herald Tribune.

I had no idea that ‘greenwashing’ (as a term) had been around for so long—almost 25 years—and was interested to read of the history of green pigments and green in culture. Good times.

Also, and lest we forget: Green is the color of Money.

Robbo vs. Banksy: Graffiti FTW!!!1!

Graffiti Artist Robbo Took the Road – WSJ.com.

I don’t have any idea how long this will be available for free, but it’s up as of today, so I hope it will remain freely available in perpetuity.

Here’s the nutshell: Banksy dissed a ~25 year old ROBBO INC. piece, and now ROBBO has come out of retirement to wage war against the street artist. Gogo Robbo (and friends). Well, ‘dissed’ may not be quite the right word, but it had the expected effect: ROBBO is now busily dissing Banksy’s all over, and I say Good for Him.

I need to keep an eye on this as it develops. Banksy is something of a tourist commodity for London (and Bristol and other parts of England), and I wonder what reaction—if any—authorities will have to the battle being waged on London streets (and canals). On the one hand, Banksy’s works are as illegal as ROBBO’s; on the other, Banksy has an incredibly high market value and exists as something of a (sub)cultural icon, and the presence of his works adds value to neighborhoods and landmarks.

Additionally, I believe the responses by ROBBO (and TEAM ROBBO) bear a relationship to the activities of ‘the Splasher,’ who features prominently in my Master’s thesis “Street Art and the Splasher: Assimilation and Resistance in Advanced Capitalism.” I also feel that the discussion could be useful in my attempt to resolve my own confusion about what separates street art from graffiti, and may help to define this separation.

Also, the comments (available here) are quite interesting—if largely unsurprising—and range from ‘vandals should be shot’ to ‘I like Banksy, but that Robbo guy (and the rest of his vandal buddies) should be shot,’ with typical misunderstanding of the impulses behind graffiti, the purpose and import of vandalism as a hobby and as an integral part of capitalism (without vandalism, glaziers, painters, sandblasters, graffiti policemen, etc. would enjoy far less business and would thus contribute less to the economy, and this is not to mention loss-prevention departments at hardware stores, Wall-Marts, and other purveyors of spraypaint), and other myriad issues surrounding graffiti (and, by extension, street art, if ‘street art’ is indeed a separate activity) in the twenty-first century.