| By :
Martin Hofschroer
Banksy has provoked protest with graffiti in the Spanish seaside city of San Sebastian. Fellow graffiti artists objected when "A Frame Beyond Compare" appeared in the capital city of the Gipuzkoa province around the time of the San Sebastian Film Festival in order to promote Banksy's documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. At nine foot high, the image displayed a man studying an ornate painting missing a canvas on a wall in the city's old quarters and angered resident graffiti artists who accused Banksy of cashing in on his fame. The first attacks included the appearance of scrawled insults around the image stating remarks such as "sell out" and "money grabber" in reference to Banksy's huge commercial popularity. Surprisingly for a Banksy graffiti stencil, the local authorities were happy for the work to remain because it would raise the profile of the region and encourage urban art fans to visit the area. San Sebastian city council was even prepared to contradict their own anti-graffiti policy and investigated ways to protect "A Frame Beyond Compare" so that the work could be preserved. Denis Itxaso, San Sebastian's councillor for culture, told the Independent newspaper: "Even if it isn't by Banksy, it is in any event a cultural expression." The art connoisseur in the graffiti was eventually covered from head to toe with black spray paint and the council could not justify spending money to restore it so the work was scrubbed clean. El Pais newspaper called the story "Birth and death of a Banksy" and the whole episode has made international news due to the global appeal of the Bristolian urban artist. Meanwhile, people who queued for several hours to view Banksy prints last year have helped create a new exhibition at the People's Republic of Stokes Croft Gallery in Bristol. A selection of the 300,000 people who waited in line for the Banksy vs. Bristol Museum exhibition were asked to produce their own doodles and these images have now been collected for the exhibition. Curator Katy Bauer told the Bristol Star: "The queue itself was truly representative of the British public; it wasn't just young people wearing hoodies. "It was a most beautiful queue, it was an incredible thing of people patiently waiting to view something rebellious, and the tension between that was a fascinating thing." Banksy charged Bristol City Council £1 to stage his exhibition on the condition that all video footage of him preparing the show was destroyed.
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlesbacklink.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
