In the film “Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop”, the whole culture of street art and graffiti is revealed by an anonymous narrator by the name of Banksy. This film was originally supposed to be directed by the featured Thierry Guetta, but when Banksy offered to edit his film, he decided to film Guetta and his first experiences and successes with becoming involved in street art. In the film Thierry goes from knowing almost nothing about the culture and how it works to actually opening his own gallery and becoming extremely successful in his endeavors despite the fact that he ripped off established artists such as Shepard Fairey and Banksy.
Thierry Guetta is quite the outgoing character throughout the film, and begins to explore street art and make his own street art as well throughout the film. He discovers and discusses in the film how street art has changed immensely throughout the years. Street art was originally an illegal and frowned upon culture, but it has now become respected, valued, and desired by art galleries.
Guetta had approached Banksy, the street art mastermind, in creating a documentary about street art, how it has changed, and what it has become. Banksy suggests to Guetta that he will edit the film himself, and instead the film will feature Guetta. Banksy remains anonymous throughout the film in commentaries and in his artwork. At the same time Guetta makes a name for himself, and becomes an extremely successful street artist. He also takes on the persona of “Mr. Brain Wash” in the film. He makes many many pieces of “artwork” over the duration of the film, and towards the end of the film he holds a gallery for his artwork. The art show was held in Los Angeles, and was called “Life is Beautiful.” Tickets presold for this show at 100,000 US dollars, and this gallery set off Guetta’s whole future and success. At the close of the flim Banksy contemplates whether or not he made the right choice in helping Guetta with this documentary because of the way in which Guetta “ripped off” Banksy’s own work.
According to the article “Here’s why the Banksy Movie is a Banksy Prank”, this film was questioned after it premiered because many viewers and art professionals feel that this film is an outright lie, and that the artwork of MBW (Mister Brain Wash) is actually that of Banksy himself because of his anonymous personality to begin with (http://www.fastcompany.com/1616365/banksy-movie-prankumentary).
As I watched the film, I did feel as though Thierry used Banksy’s art as well as other artists such as Andy Warhol’s orginal work as a platform for his own creations. After all, most of his “artwork” was merely other artists’ work that was photoshopped or changed via illustrator rather than his own creation. However, Mr. Brain Wash did know how to market and promote himself in the correct manner, and I feel that this is why is work caught on so much. He advertised himself through graffiti in the street, as well as telling as many people as possible about his art show and I truly believe that this was the key to his success.
However, I do not think that Mister Brain Wash was being a “legitimate” artist or creating “meaningful” artwork per se. He happened to speak to the right people such as Banksy, and promoted himself to the right people, but he was not necessarily legitimate. Some of his most well known artwork such as the Campbell’s Soup can and Elvis with a toy gun were not original works of art and were simply altered from their original form. I also feel that much of his work was extremely resonant of that of Andy Warhol, and that he most certainly ripped off Warhol's creations.
I also do not think that the artwork of Guetta was meaningful by any means. Most artists’ work comes from their heart, and this shows in their finished product. From my personal perspective, I felt that all of his artwork was interesting to look at because it was peculiar and strange while all being too similar to other works of art I have seen in the past. I think that he just made these pictures to make a name for himself rather than his work coming from his heart, a quality that is instrumental for many other artists.
Thank you!
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