A few weeks ago, a work by
British street artist Banksy went up for auction
at Sotheby's London. Moments after the
auctioneer banged his gavel announcing its sale
for over $1.3 million, a beep sounded and
the canvas began to fall through the
bottom of the frame and emerge in shreds
on the other side just after Banksy
posted a picture of it with the caption
going, going, gone and then followed up
with a video showing how he installed a shredder
in the frame in case it ever went up for auction. Sotheby's claimed
they had no idea that this was going to
happen and had been Banksyed. And the buyer was anonymous,
which is common in auctions. After a week when
media conjecture had run dry over who knew about
it and would the buyer have to pay for it, Sotheby's
put out a press release explaining that
what actually happened was that a new work by
Banksy had been created at the auction, one that's been
authenticated by the artist and given the new title
"Love is in the Bin". After that, Banksy released a
director's cut explaining that in rehearsals, the paintings
shredded fully every time, including some vertical video
to firmly place the rehearsals in the recent past, proving both
that he's a master manipulator and that his word
cannot be trusted. OK, but let's take a closer look
at what this work actually is. Banksy first painted the
image of a child reaching out toward a red, heart-shaped
balloon in London in 2002, this one with the inscription
"There is always hope." Other versions were
made around the city, but none of the
original murals remain because this, like
most of Banksy's work, was unsanctioned street
art made without permission for the public to enjoy and
for property owners or city government to paint over
or protect as they see fit. Individuals can and have
tried to remove and resell his public art, but
for the most part Banksy's work has
been fleeting and free and is actively planned to
be that way by its creator. The heart balloon
appeared alone in 2013 with bandages in Brooklyn
and also with kids standing on a pile of guns at a Central
Park art stall on sale for $60. In 2014, he reworked the girl
with balloon image in supported the With Syria
campaign, explaining, "The red balloon carries
the girl above and away from the chaos below, beyond
the burnt-out buildings and bullet-potted walls." Also in 2014, Justin Bieber had
the image tattooed on his arm. A version with a
Union Jack balloon surfaced in 2017
in a print Banksy tried to give away to UK
citizens in some constituencies if they voted against
the Conservative Party. But since it's illegal to accept
a gift in return for a vote, the offer was rescinded. And a few days later
he posted this. In a 2017 poll,
"Girl with Balloon" beat out both this painting
by JMW Turner and this one by David Hockney
to claim the title of the UK's favorite artwork. This is all to say that by
the time the work in question arrived at auction it was
a well-loved and widely recognizable image,
estimated to sell for as much as about $400,000 US. The auction report
shares that it's not a multiple but a
unique work made in 2006 with Banksy's signature
method of stenciled spray paint but this time on
canvas instead of on a wall or as a print on paper. It was authenticated by
Pest Control, the handling service that acts on
the artist's behalf and authenticates his work. Sotheby's claims it was acquired
directly from the artist by the unnamed
present owner the year it was made following a show
he organized of his work in an LA warehouse, and it
came in that gilded frame-- ah, the frame-- which
Sotheby's states was, quote, "chosen by
Banksy himself." Gold frames are one of the
artist's favorite motifs. In conjunction with that
same LA warehouse show, he released a print
that clearly expresses his dubiousness of
the auction process and even presented it in
a ridiculous gold frame. And for his 2009 exhibition
at the Bristol museum, Banksy mixed his works in with
the museum's collection, many of them in period appropriate
frames, helping his art blend in, at least sort of. One of these was a gold frame
laid over a concrete slab with one stick figure asking,
"Does anyone really take this kind of art seriously?",
and another replying, "Never underestimate the
power of a big gold frame." A year later, this
image appeared on a wall in San Francisco
clearly demonstrating the uneasy situation
Banksy has found himself in as his profile has risen
and more and more people try to benefit of unauthorized sales
and exhibitions of his work. Now I find it unlikely that
no one at Sotheby's knew what was going to happen
with this big gold frame or that anyone
inspecting it would find nothing suspicious about it. I also find it unconvincing
that Banksy's video showing his frame construction
was made back in 2006 or that it's
coincidental that it was the last lot in the auction. Banksy very well could
have been the prior owner. Sotheby's doesn't have to
disclose that information. Regardless, what
happened indicates very strongly that people
really do take this kind of art seriously. They probably would
have even if it hadn't been in the gold
frame, but they're certainly taking it even more seriously
now that the frame has revealed itself to be an
integral part of the work. When he posted his video, Banksy
included the quote by Picasso, "The urge to destroy is
also a creative urge." And Banksy certainly
isn't the first artist to incorporate
destruction in art making. Man Ray made his first
indestructible object in 1923, an altered
metronome that the viewer is instructed to smash
when they've reached, quote, "the limit of endurance." Robert Rauschenberg is famous
for his 1953 erased Willem de Kooning drawing, and Nicki
de Saint Phalle for her 1961 exhibition in which
she asks visitors to fire at her relief paintings
with a .22 caliber rifle. There are many ways a work of
art comes into being, be it an additive process,
a subtractive process, one that must unfold
in space and time, or one that's
immaterial, not existing until the moment it's
performed and then disappearing as soon as it's over. "Girl with Balloon"
was one artwork, and now it's another
that came into being through a public action but
which still very much has a material presence because
the object wasn't destroyed. It's only half shredded. And since it was
canvas going through, the remaining fringe
is pretty stable. I can totally see an
art packer carefully crafting a crate that
will keep it safe and sound until its
next exhibition. It really only got more
interesting when shredded. Editioned prints, or
paintings of Banksy's images, even if sanctioned by the
artist, are all right, but they certainly don't
have the subversive power or presence of his art made
in and for the public arena. His gilt frames had
served the purpose of emphasizing the artificiality
of putting these images meant for the public
into private hands, but now one of those
frames has revealed itself to be an agent
of insurrection, however incomplete its
act of destruction. And the art world loves being
questioned and criticized. It's weird. It's almost like a kind
of high-class nagging which they've even given their
own academic-sounding term. Institutional critique is what
they call the art that actively critiques the
structures it lives in and that make it possible,
like museums or galleries or, in this case,
an auction house. It became a thing
after institutions started to collect more
ephemeral and performative works made by artists
in the '60s and '70s by artists strategically
trying to avoid the traditional spaces for art. But no matter. Museums were happy
to matriculate these invasive works and include
them in their histories of art, and in many cases people
proved willing to buy them too. And so it's not
at all surprising when something as
straightforwardly material as this work by Banksy can fetch
such a high price at auction, and it's not
surprising either when its collector is willing
to accept it's transformed and likely even
more valuable state, especially now
that post action it embodies some aspect
of the subversion that makes Banksy Banksy. It can actually live more
comfortably in an exhibition now than it could
before, hanging half in and out of its frame, telling
its own history of Banksy's shenanigans. But there's also another
important element of this work that we might be overlooking,
and that's the publicity and press that has
swirled around it, which I'd argue is as much a
part of the work as what went down at Sotheby's. Banksy is brilliant at
attracting attention and generating controversy. His anonymity is part of that
and something I hope never goes away. With this work,
he draws attention to the auction
process in general, which is followed closely only
by an extremely tiny community. Most of us see headlines about
multimillion dollar sales, feel nauseous, and then move on. The auction system
in its current form survives in part because most
people aren't paying attention to it. It's a highly efficient way
for the international uber-rich to buy and trade
valuable assets. Sure, some are in the
game for good reasons, but Banksy's action
has made us all more aware of a few key facts. People are willing to pay
ungodly sums of money for art these days. With rare exceptions, none of
that money goes to the artists. These are secondary
sales, meaning one owner is selling to another. Most artists are
completely powerless when their work goes to auction. To take back some of that
power, you might have to get your hands a little dirty, like
when Damien Hirst orchestrated his own direct-to-auction sale
in 2008 and like this recent stunt by Banksy, which may or
may not have been executed with the cooperation of Sotheby's. Whether or not we assume
what Banksy says is true-- which we really shouldn't-- "Love is in the Bin"
still reminds us of the convoluted
power structures that vie for what
art and which artists get anointed as
important and valuable. We like Banksy's work because
it helps us see the gross power imbalances all around
us, even if they're imperfect and temporary and
corruptible by outside forces, or perhaps we love them more
because of those things. Banksy may seem like less of the
pure countercultural rebel he once was, but I,
for one, appreciate these recent attempts at
effecting change, however small, from the inside, or at
least with one foot in and one foot out, able to
capture money from sales that will happen with
or without his blessing, and perhaps apply those proceeds
to new work in the future. I, for one, will be looking
out for some very public $1.3 million
expenditures from Banksy in the not-too-distant future. I'll leave it to
him to surprise me. Do you want to know more
about money so you can maybe buy a Banksy one day? "Two Cents" is a
PBS Digital Studios series about money and you. Financial experts and husband
and wife team Philip Olson and Julia Lorenz-Olson guide
you through the complex world of personal finance. You'll get practical
knowledge and insight into how your brain is hardwired
to react to economic problems. Check the link in
the description below to subscribe to "Two Cents." Thanks to all of our patrons
for supporting the "Art Assignment", especially Vincent
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