Urban Art Association

This will have to go to the artist with the landmark/historic/iconic piece that would be fought enough at auction.

And where is Herakut and Beejoir

The rule is, that if you are planning on people seeing you in your underwear, then it should match.

no walker

This one isn't really open to debate...

Whenever I think about it, I always wonder if the Hirst/Banksy collaboration should be counted as his high or should Simple Intelligence Testing. Personally, I think Simple Intelligence Testing should be it.



Why not?

Because it can only be Banksy. Out of the list above, only Shep has outside chance, he's certainly captured something of the zeitgeist at this moment in time, and the more he gets arrested, the more he gets written about, which can only be a good thing in terms of artistic posterity.

The problem (if you could call it that) with him is twofold in my opinion. He lacks a completely captive market outside of the US. As much as folks here might rate him, we're in the minority in the grand global scheme of things, and for true longeivity and genre defining moments, worldwide recognition has to be paramount. Especially in an age of the internet and Russian / Chinese new money, the US isn't the superpower it once was in terms of top end auction prices.

The other smaller issue is that now so much of Obey's identity is tied in with Obama, so that if the new administration makes a mess of things (unlikely it seems at this moment, but who can ever tell), or there's another messy foreign war, Shep's politics will be inextricably linked and that will have the umbrella effect of taking him down too. Things that visually capture a moment have a habit of dating very quickly.

As I see it, Banksy has done everything right so far. The only way any artist will be remembered in a movement as ephemeral as something painted on the streets is to be written about. As much as it's undemocratic, it's art critics, art historians, curators, galleries and mainstream media that will decide what will rise to the top in the very conservative auction house environment.

If these things were based on artistic merit alone, Neate and Parla would rank far higher, but as it is all that matters in ten years time will be words in mainstream media print and number of google hits, and these will directly correlate with auction prices.

I know I'm preaching to the converted with you mose having read some of your posts before, but to use an obvious example Duchamp never had a great deal of artistic refinement, but what he did have was the talent to attract publicity and controversy. It's not because of any real artistic merit that he's still talked about to this day. Equally, in my opinion Warhol's greatest talent wasn't his art, but his ability to market his art.

I'm with you all the way on the Hirst colab not counting for anything in terms of Banksy records by the way. It wasn't far off what a Hirst spot painting would have fetched, Banksy additions or not. We were well on course to see a £1million+ Banksy auction moment, the enonomic situation has just pushed that back a little further, but I've no doubt our movement will get there, and as with so much else, Banksy will be first.

Banksy is an outsider because he chooses to be an outsider. Many hitters on the inside want a piece of him. Banksy will be tops in 10 years no doubt.

Which Fairey canvases are editioned? And, Faile is way too niche to ever get anywhere.

I think people underestimate the relevance of this as an art movement. We'll see a number of these artists increase in profile over the next 30 years as they represent a generation that, in theory, will have increased spending power as it gets older. I've said this before, but Hirst and his contemporaries are the last artists of the baby boomer generation. 20 years from now there is a good chance that many artists from Hirst's generation will look dated and unfashionable as they represent a trend that has developed over the last 30 to 40 years and that is abruptly coming to an end at this very moment.

Don't underestimate the sginificance of this generational change. The real question is whether any of these artists will be remembered once we're all dead and our grand children look back on generation X and Y as old-fashioned and irrelevent.

I think a few other names could also be put into the mix but out of the choice given it has to be Banksy first, closely followed by Faile

I think some of the names mentioned have a style that will do well within the scene, but when we start talking about 10 years time I cant see them growing to a scale that they are known by the average person on the street.

The current answer is none. All canvas works by Fairey are 1/1 originals these days.

There was an old, discontinued series of screenprints on canvas 5+ years back. They were editions of 2+ an AP like the screenprints on wood, collaged wood, and metal are today. Not many designs ended up having a screenprint on canvas version.

only time will tell, but IMO neate will never capture the public's attention as Banksy has. In auction terms Neates prices may return to the heights achieved before the downturn, but will they be higher than Banksy, again IMO no.