On October 5 of last year, a painting by the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy was sold at auction for $1.4 million. But that was only the beginning.
As soon as the sale was final, the painting started moving. And not just moving—it was being shredded.
Long known for his artistic stunts and jokes, Banksy had secretly built a shredder into the artwork’s frame so he could use it for just this occasion. But why?
Banksy posted a video explaining the act on Instagram, complete with a quote from Picasso: “The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.” Known for his street art—including grafitti, but also a theme park, counterfeit money, and more—Banksy typically doesn’t sell his work, unlike traditional artists. So it seems like shredding his art was a protest against others profiting from his work.
But Jason Daley, writing for Smithsonian Magazine, points out that it’s not so simple. There are reasons to think the auctioneers knew about the stunt and allowed it to happen. And the painting wasn’t totally shredded: “Instead, what remains could conceivably be put back together or kept in its shredded state to later be displayed or even sold again, raising the idea that the work was less of a social commentary and more of a self-promoting publicity stunt,” Daley wrote.
This example is just one of many in which the art world seems to do rather silly things. Others include a pineapple and a pair of glasses, left by visitors in galleries, being considered pieces of art.
Many people look at these events as proof that contemporary art is kind of meaningless. But maybe there’s something more interesting going on. To find out, we met with Linda Dougherty, the chief curator and curator of contemporary art at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Watch our interview with her below.
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