Existencilism by Banksy

C sent me from London a little booklet by Banksy, an exterior paint specialist. Basically thats another name for someone who paints on walls and other surfaces. This is the 2nd time that I heard of this name, and I think he is quite popular in UK and Europe from this article. I read thru the small books and I think this guy has a great sense of humour and he does express it thru his work too. Furthermore, there are usually social elements that are associated with his work, like political freedom, general freedom and the freedom of speech. Jamie Oliver and other celebrates can be counted as some of his fans.

The first time I heard about him was when there was a feature on him in Boing Boing. What he did was that he created some art pieces and then sneak those into museums like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, American Museum of Natural History and passing them off as art endosed by said locations. What actually happened was that each piece created by him has a message such as anti-war. Click on the museums link to see what he did.

Here are some of his quotes that I like.

There are 4 basic human needs; food, sleep, sex and revenge.

All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?

There’s nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place.

Some of his usual styles is to stencil something over signs and somehow just make it funny.

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