On 22 Feb, 14:31, MIG wrote:
The little ******* were recently active on the westbound FCC platform walls
at Barbican, tagging the brickwork again. Bad in itself - but TPTB have seen
fit to remove the "artwork", not with a high-pressure hose but with a
liberal application of cream paint, which looks equally as bad. Considering
the fine brick retaining walls at the station, it's a shame that the job
couldn't have been done with a little more sympathy. It looks bloody awful!

Wheres John Band to argue that deep down they're just misunderstood
artists wot 'ave a golden 'art an all luv their mums....

*Whatever*. Banksy's work /is/ art; if you can't appreciate that
you're a ****wit. Tox06 is a mindless vandal with no artistic merit at
all.

Most grafitiists lean towards the Tox06 model than the Banksy model,
but not all. And even the Tox06-ists are hardly up there with brick-
throwers and knife-wielding thugs in the whole "really bad people it's
worth getting upset about and throwing in jail for ages" stakes.

No one who changes someone else's design (even just a brick wall)
without permission is an artist.

That's an interesting contribution to the philosophy of art. Shame
about Andy Warhol though (at least, I don't think he got permission
from Campbell Soup). In fact, you lose most 20th and 21st century art
based on that criterion... perhaps you don't view that as much of a
loss.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org