Good thread. While Banksy is the one who moved me to start doing art again, Basquiat is off the chart. I grew up thinking Warhol was incredible. Im sure part of it stems from the fact Im in advertising, and liked how he merged icons, products and other stuff with art. Banksy took Warhols style and merged it with graffiti and political/media topics. When I first saw "Napalm" I about shit myself. It was warholesque, but slapped you in the face. I loved it! It got me back into doing art. A forum member (and I forget who) made a comment on judging artists being revolutionary versus evolutionary. It was a great comment, and one that should be applied when looking at artists works. I think this comment was posted on a Parla thread. Parlas work is incredible, but its more of an evolution against stuff like Twombly. Banksy is an evolution of Warhol. Basquiat is like... well... no one else.

>>>I have never been awestruck by a lone-standing Warhol piece in a museum, that is to say the magnitude of Warhol is only realized when you look at the body of his work as a whole<<<

Oh you poor soul.

I cant see what those images do to dispel the point lee. Warhol was not a great artist at individual pieces, I agree that the strength lies in the body of work, replaying and remixing common images which individually would do nothing. I would say that Richard Hamilton, a contemporary, was far better at striking individual pieces, so respectfully agree with James about not being struck by an individual Warhol piece




MODIFY - to shoot myself in the foot this warhol image stopped me dead and blows my argument away, completely forgot about it

no problem, thats the beauty of it all

How you mean TGA?, Not looking at Basquiat?.

Sorry WIZ quoted lee3 thinking it was you.

There was a very interesting review of Fairey's latest show in the New York Times which encapsulates much of what I feel about Banksy's work too. Well worth a read:

www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/arts/design/18fair.html?ref=design

I will take the Pollock and the David thank you v much!.

The Picasso and the Matisse for mine.

Wasnt Carry on Painting was it?, i cant see a Matisse? is it as im on Macs here???.

try this then wiz, can you see it?

Yes topboy, having lived in Denmark Hill for a year I saw waaay too many of those

I don't necessarily think that great works need to be heavily worked over either... this (as a singular work) blew me away the first time that I experienced it.

First, I should stress ... apples and oranges comparisons!!! Warhol v. Basquiat v. Banksy... Each are unbelievably brilliant in their own right and I've been awestruck by each of their pieces in a different way.

Starting with Basquiat... The primitivism, the unbelievable amount of emotion and depth in the works... You really have to see some large Basquiats in person to really appreciate them. Much like Pollack, you really can't get the full scope till you're staring at it in the flesh. What makes them amazing is the richness of the colours, the thickness of the paint. They have a vibrancy that is lost when you're looking at them on a screen or in a book. You can't reproduce that on a screen or in a book. Plus, they seem so haunting.

Many Banksy images lend themselves to the modern internet age. The simple two color stencil thing translates better to the computer screen than more complex oil brush work. Nevertheless, many Banksy street pieces blow me away... if only because he had the balls to attempt them and because of the context of the work.

Plus, don't discount that Banksy is playing with so many mediums - Pet Stores??? Much of his art is so subversive, I find it hard to comprehend the more dismissive comments about Banksy v. Basquiat.

Frankly, Basquiat works tend to be more enigmatically profound while Bansky works tend to be more drolly, intellectually, and subversively profound.

Lastly, Warhol ... its pop art. As pop art, its supposed to be overtly palatable, consequently, when you consume a Warhol image, you're more or less supposed to not have the same experience as taking in "Guernica."