Posted on 03/25/2005 8:08:35 AM PST by bedolido
Many a visitor to New York's Museum of Modern Art has probably thought, "I could do that," but a graffiti artist has gone one step further.
A British graffiti artist who goes by the name "Banksy" smuggled in his own picture of a soup can and hung it on a wall, where it stayed for more than three days earlier this month before anybody noticed.
The prank was part of a coordinated plan to infiltrate four of New York's top museums on a single day.
The largest piece, which he smuggled into the Brooklyn Museum, was an oil painting, 61centimetres by 46 centimetres, of a colonial-era admiral to which the artist had added a can of spray paint in the admiral's hand and anti-war graffiti in the background.
The other two targets were the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History, where he hung a glass-encased beetle with fighter jet wings and missiles attached to its body - another comment on war, Banksy said.
"It was just an outsider's view of the modern American bug, bristling with listening devices and military hardware," he said.
A picture of the artist, wearing an overcoat, a hat and a fake beard and nose, hanging up his work at the four museums attracted the attention of the New York Times.
Banksy said he conducted all four operations on March 13, helped by accomplices who filmed him and provided distractions where necessary.
"They staged a gay tiff (lovers' quarrel), shouting very loudly and obnoxiously," he said, declining to give his real name or any personal details beyond his occupation as a professional painter and decorator.
It is not the first time he has staged such stunts. Last year he smuggled work into the Louvre in Paris and London's Tate, attracting attention in the British media.
"My sister inspired me to do it. She was throwing away loads of my pictures one day and I asked her why. She said 'It's not like they're going to be hanging in the Louvre.'"
He took that as a challenge. "I thought why wait until I'm dead," he said.
His preferred creative outlet, graffiti on trains, was growing more difficult due to greater security so he decided to branch out into infiltrating museums. "I tend to gravitate to places with less sophisticated security systems," he said.
Officials at the Natural History Museum declined to comment on security. Museum of Modern Art officials said only that the offending picture was taken down on March 17.
He said the painting in the Metropolitan Museum, a small portrait of a woman wearing a gas mask, had been discovered after one day, while the others stayed up for several days.
The paintings were fixed to the wall with extra-strong glue.
Except for the use of glue to damage the walls, and the silly messages, I find this pretty amusing.
Considering the state of modern "art" I think his stuff should stay.
And, what does it say about modern art if the museum operators fail to recognize they've received an extra piece of art?
"They staged a gay tiff (lovers' quarrel), shouting very loudly and obnoxiously,"LOL probably not the most rare of occurrences there but certainly an effective deterrent.
The political message sucked out loud, but this is actually pretty funny and unusually creative for leftists.
-Eric
Me too! Hey, this guy can say his art was hung in the most famous museums in the word!!!! You only live once, might as well do it with gusto! Nobody got hurt. It does show an incredible lack of security though. Maybe the museums will learn something.
Course by today's definition of art, wasn't their act of satirizing art was actually a work of...
this seems funny...but nothing is really funny today.
Nice to see an artist with initiative and a knack for self-marketing. Good for him!
I predict this man will soon find fame and fortune, and the great museums of the world will be flattered if he sneaks in and leaves his guerrilla art there.
-ccm
Better than the Virgin Mary picture with the elephant dung on it.......
I expect the bogus painting to show up on Ebay. As a work of art which was formerly on display in one of the world's great museums, I imagine it will go for a good price.
Leftists and antiwar types only want free countries disarmed; that tells you where they're coming from.
Nevertheless, this is kind of funny. One could wish though, that it had been intended as a comment on modern(e) art rather than just another stunt by a useful idiot.
I heard on the radio another hysterical thing this guy did. Apparently he found a way to sneak into a gorilla enclosure at the zoo when the gorilla was not in it. Then he covered the walls with grafitti written from the gorilla's point of view.
Well, now he's famous.
I'll wait until MOMA does his retrospective, & I'll deface one of his pictures. Then I'll get famous.
I've got some pictures for sale right now which y'all could buy at a fraction of their projected value. You could make a killing if you don't try to sell them the minute I do my famous deed-- that would flood the auction block. And oh yeah, don't try to sell them on EBAY, people there only pay what somethings worth.
..."She (the sister) was throwing away loads of my pictures one day..."
My sister was a critic too.
"A picture of the artist, wearing an overcoat, a hat and a fake beard and nose, hanging up his work at the four museums *attracted the attention of the New York Times.*"
I bet the fact that he was a hippy sealed the deal though.
It won't be hard to duplicate his art, pretty soon
it will be mass made in China...no?
Creative way to tweak the nose of the art snobs, but
who really cares? As if the museums are the only, holy, unique places where the sacred creative spirit of mankind lives.
If his work is unique and worth commenting on, he should
get one of his friends to hang it up in their restaurants,
or places of business, or their schools, or homes...people
will notice and want his work...I have a friend who started
that way, and is now quite successful.
Actually this whole affair, for some reason, reminded meof a remark once made by R. Lee Ermey in "Full Metal Jacket":
"...You're so ugly you could be a modern art masterpiece!..."
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