Michael Bai ‘20
On October 19th, 2018, at auction house Sotheby’s in New York, a painting by anonymous British graffiti artist Banksy was sold for $1.4 million. Moments later, the painting self-destructed by shredding itself in front of several witnesses, attracting widespread media coverage. The shredded piece was a copy of one of Banksy’s most famous works titled “Girl with Balloon.” In a later statement, Banksy said that the piece was supposed to be completely shredded, but the shredder built into the frame stopped halfway. His artwork is well-known for its political and social commentary as well as their satirical and subversive messages.
Despite the destroyed state of the artwork, the winning bidder still decided to stay with her million-dollar bid. According to multiple art appraisers, the value of the shredded painting may even increase due to the newfound uniqueness of what used to be a copy.
Students and faculty at Episcopal believe that Banksy’s stunt represents the changing values and perceptions of art. Neera Raychaudhuri ‘20 said, “I think that these days, people seem to value different things regarding artwork than they did in the past. It’s interesting to see how after destroying something, people now value it more because I guess there’s a story behind it or the picture has character now.” Likewise, Karissa Lim ‘20 says, “Especially with the whole shredding thing, I feel like it does give [the painting] more meaning than it had before. I feel like art these days looks more into the ‘meaning’ behind the art than what it looks like. Some of the art that are being sold, I would not have it in my house, but then they are sold for millions of dollars, so they must mean something important.”
David Sigel, upper school art teacher, says, “What happens [in the world] is reflected by the art and so, we often say that art is a true reflection of the history, right now, it is timely and it is very representational of how we see things and how we value things.” However, he also believes that Banksy’s stunt is not indicative of the state of modern art as a whole, stating, “I think it says a lot about his ingenuity and his place in the art world, so it really has nothing to do with the actual market of contemporary art and modern art. I think this is one aspect of the art world. There are still lots of traditional artists that are out there, that are very well-known in being successful at what they do, and then there are a lot of artists who are taking advantage of media and the immediacy of the world around us.”