Official vandalism at Barbican
 

On 22 Feb, 15:13, John B wrote:
*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.

Its art yes, personally I don't think its great art but it has a
certain amount of street cred so the chattering classes can pretend to
be down-wid-da-kids.. Having said that , vandalism is vandalism
however much talent the vandal may have otherwise you might as well
say murder isn't murder if the murderer killed the victim with a
certain amount of panache and creativity. Using that line of thought
probably half of the gestapo qualified as "artists".

B2003

Official vandalism at Barbican
 

On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:13:23 -0800 (PST), John B
wrote:

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.

So anyone who disagrees with your subjective judgement is a ****wit? I
love you too, pal.

Official vandalism at Barbican
 

On 22 Feb, 18:08, James Farrar wrote:

*Whatever*. Banksy's work /is/ art; if you can't appreciate that
you're a ****wit.

So anyone who disagrees with your subjective judgement is a ****wit? I
love you too, pal.

No, anyone who knows sufficiently little about aesthetic theory to
understand that under any sane definition that would be used by any
critic, curator or philosopher of art for the last 100 years, Banksy's
work counts as art - but who still also believes they are capable of
making a meaningful contribution to a debate about art, is a ****wit.

That isn't to say Banksy's work is necessarily *good* art, which is
indeed a subjective judgement.

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