The movie is overall enjoyable, even humorous at times but ultimately left me feeling annoyed. I was/am annoyed because of the mere notion of "street art" which I consider to be graffiti and a public nuisance. I fully believe art has a time and a place - I just don't think you need to vandalize someone's property as your canvas. If an artist is really that talented, I think they should be able to get their art out through legal and mainstream methods rather than mess up our already crappy looking major metropolitan cities. I guess they're reaching a much larger audience because you get random people walking down the street but my first emotional reaction is always going to be annoyance.
Another thing that bugs me is the notion that what these guys do is art. I know, I know, art is all subjective and whatnot. But as someone who makes his living as an artist, what the main artist in the movie, Mr. Brainwash, does can hardly be called art. He is shown in the movie having a staff of artists scan in images out of books, Photoshop them to some minor extent under his orders and print them out. So, he's taking an image he didn't originally photograph and having someone else manipulate it. The work of Mr. Brainwash they show in the movie seemed highly derivative of Andy Warhol's work so it seems he hardly has an original idea. Where does the creativity of an artist come in to play here...? And of course, Mr. Brainwash ends up selling a lot of his work for a LOT of money which infuriates me as well.
On the plus side, even though I would consider it vandalism, a lot of the work I've seen from Banksy does seem rather clever and in fact, humorous.
I'm not really sure what to say of the movie as a whole since it left me liking the work one street artist (yet still despising vandalism) and being highly annoyed with another street artist. I guess it it made me think about what really is considered "art" and I don't think anyone can provide a definite answer for that.
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Man, I didn't know you were such a conservative when it comes to art/street art. I actually think street art is needed and is where the most relevant social commentary is made. You're not going to find relevant social commentary on FOX News, or any news channel for that matter.
I think Banksy is the most relevant, creative and original artist we have right now. I used to be a big Shepard Fairey fan until I couldn't buy his posters anymore because they would sell out in seconds and then be instantly resold on eBay for three times the selling price. I also found this article on him that was really disheartening: http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm
Then there was the Obama/Associated Press fiasco. So, he's basically a giant fraud in my book. And he makes a ton of money.
I think Exit Through the Gift Shop was a total goof by Banksy. I think Banksy made that movie and is the actual artist/driving force behind Mr. Brainwash to pretty much make every point that you made: people are willing to pay big money for unoriginal art, just as long as there is hype. I think it was a giant prank by Banksy and everyone fell for it.
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