Warhol Not Banksy Not Warhol: Art Is What You Can Get Away With

Description

In 1963 the young Banksy met graphic designer Andy Warhol when commissioning him to design the cover for his radical pro-consumerist book Lying, Cheating, Stealing and the Death of Art Vol 1 (Simone and Sheila Press, NY 1964).

It was during this first collaboration that Banksy gave Warhol the idea of using screen-printing to make multiples of paintings on an industrial scale whilst encouraging him to adopt the Neo-Nothingist Pop-Not-Art doctrine of “taking the inside and putting it on the outside and taking the outside and putting it on the inside for no obvious reason”. They also discussed at great length how “commercial art should be real Not-Art and how real art should be Not-commercial”, with Banksy insisting (despite some resistance from the more highbrow Warhol) that the best Not-Art should be inane and simple enough to be easily understood by any idiot, made with as little effort as possible, and have enough hype to fool collectors into buying it no matter how rubbish it was. Warhol pushed for some level of integrity and cultural critique in the work and further argued that Not-Art should only be inflicted on the rich, whereas Banksy maintained allegiance to the ethos of “keeping it real for the people” by piling it high and selling it cheap at a price everyone could afford. In the end they agreed to agree that they were both Not-Right.

From this starting point the two artists adopted the names Warhol Not Banksy and Banksy Not Warhol and the pair regularly collaborated until 1982 when Warhol Not Banksy suddenly dumped Banksy Not Warhol for Basquiat. This caused the devastated Banksy Not Warhol to abandon making screen-prints for the American Pop-Not-Art market and move to Bristol in the UK where he became a reclusive street artist.

Back in 1963 there was also some controversy when the elderly statesman of Not-Art Marcel Duchamp caught wind of what the pair were up to and accused Warhol Not Banksy and Banksy Not Warhol of stealing his ideas. And, worse still, corrupting them by aestheticizing the everyday object/icon and making Not-Art likeable – where Duchamp firmly believed it should remain unlikeable. To make his point Duchamp sent Warhol Not Banksy a thoroughly unlikeable portrait of the “thieving bastard” as an old man wearing a fright wig and cavalier moustache with the inscription H.H.A.H.A. – presumed to mean He Has A Hot Ass. This both references Duchamp’s détourned Mona Lisa postcard L.H.O.O.Q. (1919) and the fact he believed Warhol Not Banksy was in possession of stolen material.

By way of reply Warhol Not Banksy stated “good artists copy, genius artists like me steal” and then made the now infamous Art Is What You Can Get Away With series using his own quote, Banksy Not Warhol’s chimpanzee stencil and Duchamp’s wig.

On 1^st April 2023 it will be the 60^th Anniversary of the Art Is What You Can Get Away With series and in honour of this occasion STOT21stCplanB, in the guise of The WARHOL NOT BANKSY vs BANKSY NOT WARHOL Regeneration, have made facsimile copies of all the original 1960’s pieces and promoted the project with a massive mural sponsored by Lulu Vuitton that also celebrates Banksy Not Warhol’s little known career as an obscure street artist.

There will first be a Ltd Edition Print Drop on the 1^st April 2023 which will then be followed by an exhibition of large scale screen-print paintings at the Black Cube Gallery on Fish Island. 13^th May – 13^th June 2023.