yea, i too remember the pre-hype days when you could look at stuff on the POW site and wait a week, a month, or even longer to decide if you wanted something. the 3 Banksy's i did buy back in Jan 2004 cost me all of ~200 Pounds. times have changed...

and to be honest, i'm not sure why the "art world" has reacted so positively to Banksy, but as he got more press, he got more fans, collectors, and speculators on his bandwagon. and then things went through the roof -- the Sotheby's stuff showing just how high the roof might be.

now it seems like anything on POW sells out in an instant. those Beuatiful Loser prints have been around for at least 1.5 years. stuff on the Faile site used to be on there for months. and so on. i guess it's good that these artists are doing well and getting recognition, but i guess it means i'll just have to look at their work on the intarweb.

yep. but the question seems to remain...how/why did Banksy get so big? streetart / stencil art has been around for ages, but somehow Banksy got "chosen" as the champion.

clearly, his work has a cleverness to it that makes it more interesting than a lot of other similar work, but the art world hardly seems to be a place that promotes "cleverness". the stunts he has pulled surely helped get his name out there too, but again, i can't see that being the explanation.

i fear the real story is probably the more typical art world one of get promoted by the right people to the right people and then you're a star. what will be interesting to see now, is how Banksy reacts to that and if he sabotages his own fame, embraces it, or ignores it.

Up until the Westbourne Grove 'Crude Oils' exhibition in October 2005, Banksy was steadily becoming more and more recognised. The pieces he smuggled into museums in London, New York and Paris at the beginning of 2005 received a lot of press, as did his paintings on the wall separating Israel and Palestine in summer 2005. These helped to consolidate the notoriety already gained from earlier stunts, exhibitions in previous years (e.g. at Cargo, outside of Vinopolis during the Jubilee, 'Turf War' at the Kingsland Road warehouse) and the growing popularity of his stencil art, Pictures On Walls and Santa's Ghetto.

However, I believe it was the release of 'Wall and Piece' in early-November 2005 that was responsible for the real turning point, when things began to go ballistic. The book quickly became a best-seller, which was an incredible accomplishment given its subject matter of graffiti/vandalism. It is at this stage that Banksy crossed over into the mainstream and became a household name. Even our grandmothers began to recognise this 'guerrilla artist'. POW's next releases, 'CND' and 'Police Kids' (a.k.a. 'Jack and Jill') sold out within days, which was unheard of at the time.

This was shortly followed by Laz opening up his gallery in March 2006. [Oh, the irony, bearing in mind Banksy's earlier public swipes against the "gallery system". But, hey, times change!] Phenomenal success.

Next, the well-timed Paris Hilton and Disneyland stunts, just before the opening in September 2006 of the 'Barely Legal' show in LA. Who shows up at the preview (other than a fuckload of other people including randoms like Keanu Reaves, Jude Law, Meg White, John Taylor, Jonny Lee Miller, Michele Hicks, Perry Farrell and Shepard Fairey)? Brangelina. Screw the rest. All you need is an elephant and Brangelina to secure next day's front page of the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.

If you can get Brangelina to turn up at your show then, by definition, you are Hot. Not surprisingly, everyone and their dog suddenly wants a piece of you.

How did it get this way? I'd say it was a combination of (i) clever artist, (ii) accessible, amusing and sometimes thought-provoking art, (iii) media-friendly persona and antics, and (iv) shrewd management plus good PR. I doff my hat.

Perfect summary Hungrig.

Banksy showed up on my radar with his gallery stunts, and then particularly with Palestine. Reuters did a nice article on his trip down there, and it was picked up and widely disseminated by the AP over here. I read each of those articles with a bit of glee--almost like watching "Project Mayhem" from Fight Club being enacted in real life (sans explosives).

My wife, the clever and thoughtful gal that she is, bought Wall and Peace as well as Supply and Demand for me as an early Christmas present. I read each of them slowly, page by page. It was incredible. It was a revelation--one of those lightbulb moments--finally, art that connected! And artists that weren't self absorbed tw*ts, too good to communicate with the feelings and experiences of ordinary people. And not only that, but Banksy and Shep both expressed sharp-edged social and political commentary in a way that was poignant without being too in-your-face or aggressive.

And all of a sudden, I became a collector of this stuff. And it turns out, there are a lot of other folks on these boards who are just like me. And frankly, it seems like the surface has hardly been scratched. None of my friends had ever seen anything like Banksy or Shep. Creatives, designers, guys that are in rock bands, boarders--the kinds of people that already don't like the status quo all that much; and when they get exposed to this stuff at our house, the reaction is always the same. Dumbfounded amazement. Its really incredible.

Frankly, I think there is an entire generation that is waking up to art, and most of us couldn't give a sh!t less about what the art world tries to tell us we *should* like or appreciate. Nobody had to tell me to dig Banksy, I just did. Kind of like my favorite music, or favorite foods--you just like it, end of story. And if its hard to get, well you simply pay more.

The art of Banksy and Shep also represents one other thing that is unique in the modern world---its not homogenized, produced by focus groups, and not directed at the mass market. And it isn't backed by government or big corporations. And that means a lot to me, considering damn near everything else in my life is tainted by some or all of that garbage. It's nice to have something that uses some of those same tools to help break things down a little--even if its just the way we think about the world around us for a little while. I want a piece of that. And a lot of other people do too.

Totally agree with the above. Not to forget also the power of limited edition prints and ebay. This allows people to buy a share of the Banksy 'stock'. All those investors in turn become bigger advocates for their brand. Ebay allows all these individuals to then increase the perceived price of the stock, one way or another, on ebay. Many have bought into the Banksy 'brand' conceptually and some of us have bought into it literally as well and therefore we all want it to be a success. When the brand is so sexy and the consumers are offered so much self interest in the brands success, no wonder there is dynamite....

Golf sale is a great print, don't you think?

Ha ha! I was waiting for somebody to say that.

ctc2, respect given for that last post of yours. Welcome to the forums from another stateside fan.