Frickin’ Genius

Posted on 23rd March, 2005 at 4:52pm by joel

File this one under “why in the hell didn’t I think of that?” A certain artist has decided that the best way to get his work into some of the finest museums in the world is to place it there himself. Seriously.

Bansky, as he’s known, donned a disguise and literally walked right into the Met, the Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum, and the MoMA in New York City and placed one of his pieces on the wall in each, complete with frame and description card. Two of these renegade pieces have been discovered and removed, yet two remain. For how long? We may never know.

Now, I’m not really implying that the best way for me to get my paintings on the walls of museums is to walk in and place them there myself (though it is entirely possible that this particular method is the best way for me to do so. *sigh*), but it certainly would be an option had I thought of it first. Now, unfortunately, no one can ever pull this off again without being labeled a “copycat” (disclaimer: as far as I know, this hasn’t happened before. There is a huge possibility that I am wrong). As the title of this post implies, the man is a frickin’ genius. There’s nothing else I can add… except Chris’s reaction after I instant messaged the link to him: “WOW”. Yup, that about sums it up perfectly. WOW.

I suppose this would be an opportune time to make a short confession about the paintings of mine hanging in Alcuin Library at St. John’s. I kind of asked if they wanted to have them. They didn’t ask me. Granted, I didn’t walk in, drill holes in the [concrete] wall, attach the hangers and paintings and then leave them on display without permission and then thank them for the space, but I did make a point to be a big enough pest that they had no choice but to accept my work (that’s a lie, as they could have easily denied me. Fortunately, they had a huge empty white wall and artist-friendly people in charge of decision-making).

So there you have it. A full year and a half before Bansky executed one of the most gutsy installations of art that anyone has ever seen, I pulled off a much less daring, less interesting, lower profile, and generally much lamer bit of guerrilla art installation all on my own. Take that, Bansky! And to top it off, I’ve managed to write about myself in a post about his accomplishment. Go me. Ugh.

Oh, and congratulations Bansky! You’ve instantly made yourself the envy of artists everywhere, if only for your complete and utter disregard for the “rules” maintained by “the man” that is the current museum system. Rock on.

Thanks to professional blogger Jason Kottke for the story and link.

Update:

Apparently he’s done this before. Oh, that Bansky.

From Jason Kottke, again.

Update 2:

This is a habit of his I’ve learned.

Yup, Jason Kottke.

Filed under: art

7 Responses to “Frickin’ Genius”

1. 1Shawn sayeth:

   23rd March, 2005 at 7:26pm

   I like the credit: from Professional blogger…
   Has he produced anything worthwhile since going pro?

   Either way, funny story.

2. 2joel sayeth:

   23rd March, 2005 at 7:37pm

   I’m not sure what would be worthwhile enough to be “fit for a pro,” but he seems to always have good stuff to read. I’m not familiar enough with his site to know if it has always been lacking webdev material, but it is definitely a “lots of interesting stuff” blog and not a “webdev” one.

   I am really curious how well his fund raising drive went. If he can blog full-time in NYC without spousal support, he must be doing something right. Yipes.

3. 3Halbie sayeth:

   23rd March, 2005 at 7:43pm

   I kept reading that as “Banky” and was wondering if this was some sort of Kevin Smith production.

   If it ever gets down to it, I’ll help you hang your art. I propose a multi-city simultaneous attack. One dude in one museum is now officially played out. You got hit at least 5 museums in 5 cities at the same time. If you’re gonna do it, do it right!

4. 4shawn sayeth:

   23rd March, 2005 at 9:56pm

   Well, we can at least do 4 cities – who can we get to pull the 5th? Tobobo?

5. 5joel sayeth:

   24th March, 2005 at 12:39am

   Halbie, it’s funny that you mention Kevin Smith. “Oh, that Bansky” is an homage to JaSBSB. If you’ve seen it a few times, you might recall the line to which I refer 🙂

   Tobobo taking care of the fifth city? I guess that would cover our fourth time zone.

6. 6joel sayeth:

   24th March, 2005 at 12:40am

   Holy crap. I have graphical smilies? I had no idea. WP is just full o’ surprises, isn’t it?

7. 7John Pennypacker sayeth:

   24th March, 2005 at 6:36am

   Genius indeed!

   I think that many of the greats were certifiably insane, or at least gave that impression. Van Gogh sure was, Dali sure acted it. Michelangelo, well, it’s safe to say that he sure didn’t care a lot about a great many things.

   This move mirrors those. If I were curator, I’d be torn on whether or not to remove the pieces. His actual paintings aren’t the art though like the ones next to them. But that painting in that spot is.

   Very nifty. Very nifty indeed.