Banksy is a street graffiti artist living in England just outside of London.  His graffiti art has brought him worldwide acclaim … in the last few years his work has been exhibited around the globe and he is now internationally recognised as the king of graffiti art!

Banksy Is The World’s Most Wanted Graffiti Artist Article on the street artist called "Banksy".

You can see graffiti in every country in the world. It often defaces walls, poles, trains and the fronts and sides of buildings. Graffiti is considered undesirable vandalism to its victims who spend time and money to paint over or wash it off their property. Indeed, graffiti painting is an ongoing problem in many subway stations and on public walkways, signs, cement walls, and other locations.

However, on the streets of the United Kingdom near London, an artist called Banksy continues to gain international recognition and fame for his graffiti. The fact is that Banksy’s "street art" has become immensely popular with both pedestrians and private art collectors alike. In the last several years, there have been a number of exhibitions and auctions of Banksy’s art work as his popularity has soared.

The growing popularity of his art is in evidence in the secondary market where a painting titled "Space Girl and Bird" sold for $575,000 in an auction event last year (2007). In fact, Banksy’s art can now be found in many private art collections worldwide. Banksy has also produced leaflets and books on art and has his own website. He self-published his first three books, "Existencilism," "Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall," and "Cut It Out."

His latest book called, "Wall and Piece," was published by Random House and has already sold more than two hundred and fifty thousand copies. Nevertheless, Banksy continues to keep his real identity secret to avoid arrest and prosecution. His anonymity is said to be born of a desire to be a "quality vandal" and to elude the police. He once said, "Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked, where the street was awash with a million colors and little phrases. . . . A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business." He has a unique view of the art world as well. He has said, "The art world is the biggest joke going. It’s a rest home for the over-privileged, the pretentious, and the weak."

Banksy’s graffiti began appearing on trains and walls around Bristol, England in 1993. By 2001, his street art could be seen all over the United Kingdom. His art has a distinctive style which makes it easy to recognize. It features attention to detail and uses layered stenciling and spray paint. Banksy uses familiar images and his pictures contain dark humor and are often controversial. His art is often focused around anti-war, anti-establishment, and anti-capitalism themes. Sometimes Banksy’s works have a pro-freedom message.

Banksy uses rats as images in many of his pictures. His most famous street paintings are a series of black-and-white stenciled rats. Many of these rats are created to be larger than life. The rats have become immensely popular with London pedestrians. A "gangster rat," painted on a wall near the Smithfield market, wears a peace-sign medallion and carries a sign that says "Welcome to Hell." Another rat holds a sign that reads, "Please love me."

Other Banksy art features the image of two policemen kissing painted on a public wall. In another picture a military helicopter is adorned with a pink bow. Winston Churchill has a Mohawk haircut in another. He has even produced revisionist oil paintings such as Mona Lisa with a yellow smiley face, and a pastoral landscape surrounded by crime-scene tape. Banksy, dressed in a disguise, installed them in the Louvre and the Tate.

Banksy often uses public walls as a background to display his art. Although recently he has been creating art on canvas as well. In addition, Banksy sometimes enters museums and galleries to add his own art to the museum collections. In the last several years, Banksy’s street art has been seen internationally. It has been found in the Middle East on Israel’s West Bank barrier, and in various countries worldwide including Spain, Palestine, Germany, and the United States. He painted the security fence at Bethlehem with a scene of a hole in the concrete barrier. The hole revealed a glittering beach on the other side.

Banksy is viewed by people in many different ways. To some he is an anti-hero who touches the public conscience. Others think of him as an anti-social rogue who vandalizes public property. Some people who have done business with him consider him to be both a genius and a madman. Many view him as unique and irreverent.

On his website Banksy states that he has bought a taller ladder to use in his work. So there can be no doubt that his graffiti ("street art") will continue. For their part, the authorities in the United Kingdom will continue to try to identify and subsequently arrest Banksy, the world’s most wanted graffiti artist.

James William Smith has worked in senior management positions for some of the largest financial services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Mr. Smith has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Boston College. He enjoys writing articles on political, national, and world events. Visit his website at http://www.eworldvu.com

By James Smith Published: 2/15/2008

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Graffiti is the name given to drawings, paintings or images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property (either legally or illegally).

Graffiti is regarded as art by those who create it, or as vandalism by many recipients.  When painted like the images on this page, there is no doubt that graffiti is a form of art for sure.

Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples going back to Aincient Greece.  Graffiti art ranges from simple scratch marks to elaborate wall paintings. In modern times, the materials used are spray paints and markers. 

A lot of the time, graffiti is used by young people to communicate social and political messages. To some, it is an art form worthy of display in galleries and exhibitions, to others it is merely vandalism. There are many different types and styles of graffiti and it is a rapidly evolving artform.

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The question is often asked … "where did graffiti art start?"…  The article below discusses the modern history of graffiti art from the 1960’s onwards … it’s an interesting read … once you’ve read it, be sure to check out our how to draw graffiti home page for lots more resources on everything graffiti related …

Where Did Graffiti Begin?
By Nathaly Dedeyan

This modern history of graffiti began in the 60s in the West Coast of America, primarily Philadelphia. Some call this era the ground work era and it was artists such as Top Cat who began the evolution. Soon the movement spread to New York with writers inspired by their brothers across the country, resulting in ‘attacks’ of graffiti on trains as a method of political protest instead of directly violent acts. The style during this formative period in the history of graffiti is hard to discern with bubble lettering and wildstyle both being utilized heavily by different artists. However, as the movement moved forward into the 70s – the so called pioneering era, the wildstyle of Tracy 168 began to symbolize the arts movement.

At the same time in the history of graffiti, we can see a major rise in the sheer number of tags being created by artists, with mass bombing and tagging becoming more active. The size of the works began to increase with artists preferring to move into safer areas such as train depots so that they could create more intricate works. This included groups such as TF5 painting entire cars with the ever more popular spray paint.

This was to be the high water mark though in the history of graffiti as an underground art movement for the late 70s saw little innovation in the movement, probably strongly effected by the increased countermeasures employed by the city of New York. What resulted was a change in direction, away from a purely artistic and political focus into a musical collaboration with hip-hop which is still seen today.

That isn’t to say that was the end of graffiti, what followed in the history of graffiti was a period of acceptance by the art world at large for their style, most recently with the prominence of artists such as Banksy. However, graffiti has never strayed too far from it’s roots, with the Berlin Wall showing it’s continued power in the 1980s as a symbol of revolution. The same is true in Palestine today, and hence the basic goals which were present at the start of the history of graffiti still exist today.

Nathaly Dedeyan is co-owner of http://www.graffiti-letters.com a free online resource for free graffiti art, fonts and graphics. Graffiti-letters.com offers a free online graffiti generator which can be used for fun or even serious designs. http://www.graffiti-letters.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nathaly_Dedeyan
http://EzineArticles.com/?Where-Did-Graffiti-Begin?&id=1818792

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Fafi, along with Miss Van, is one of the world’s most famous female graffiti artists.  Read more about the girls graffiti art below:

Fafi’s Gorgeous Graffiti Girls!
By Melanie Ullman

Fafi was born and raised in Toulouse France – the home of another "graffiti girl", Miss Van. She has been on the art scene since 1994 when she first witnessed the graffiti street art on her hometown walls. Inspired by the scenes depicted, she started her work and hasn’t looked back since.

Fafi’s style is quite unique. Fafi tends to depict women in various forms. She identifies a particular stereotype and will render it to create a "Fafi Girl". She paints exaggerated stereotypes of women in a cute and "Fafi" way. Her style helped re-define the graffiti scene and open new doors with what the artwork could be.

After she drew the public eye upon her, she started to travel around the world. Europe, USA, Japan, Hong-Kong, all got "Fafi’ed". Her work would appear around the world in galleries and advertisements. The world was truly her canvas!

Sony became infatuated with the cute and iconic figures Fafi would create and hired her to design a six-character toy set for their Time Capsule videogame set. This only furthered her career as she made the transition from two dimensional to three dimensional work. Other companies followed suit and she procured contracts from Collette, Coca-Cola, M.A.C cosmetics, Adidas and other companies for her figurines.

Fafi got a lot of press coverage as well during this time. She was featured in many prestigious magazines such as Vogue, Elle, XLR8R, and Yen. She then published a few books, Girls Rock (2003) and Love and Fafiness (2006). These prints are very successful and can be seen in libraries and museums to purchase.

Fafi entered a new stage in 2007 when she became a mother. She moved to Paris and a change in her work can be seen. Her Fafinettes not only are "Flygirls" but they can be seen in other life aspects. They can be a whole assortment of creations now Fafi calls it the "Carmine Vault" and invites everyone to enter her dreamy and peculiar world.

Click here to see some of Fafi’s gorgeous Graffiti Street Art!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Melanie_Ullman
http://EzineArticles.com/?Fafis-Gorgeous-Graffiti-Girls!&id=1779383

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The debate over whether or not graffiti is art has raged for years … so is it art?  Well I’d say the graffiti pic above is definitely not art, its mindless vandalism of someone’s property … but when you look at the cool graffiti pics below it is most definitely great art …

Here’s a good article on the graffiti art debate …

Is Graffiti Art?

Is graffiti art or just vandalism? Can it ever have a place in art galleries, or should it just be removed?

You can travel almost anywhere in the world, and you will probably see graffiti. Although graffiti art is usually more common in big cities, the reality is that it can occur in almost any community, big or small.

The problem with graffiti art is the question of whether it’s really art, or just plain vandalism. This isn’t always an easy question to answer, simply because there are so many different types of graffiti. Some is simply a monochrome collection of letters, known as a tag, with little artistic merit. Because it’s quick to produce and small, it is one of the most widespread and prevalent forms of graffiti.

Although tagging is the most common type of graffiti, there are bigger, more accomplished examples that appear on larger spaces, such as walls. These are often multicolored and complex in design, and so start to push the boundary of whether they should really be defined as graffiti art.

If it wasn’t for the fact that most graffiti is placed on private property without the owner’s permission, then it might be more recognized as a legitimate form of art. Most graffiti art, however, is only an annoyance to the property owner, who is more likely to paint over it or remove it than applaud its artistic merit.

Many solutions have been put into practice around the world, with varying degrees of success. Paints have been developed that basically cause graffiti paint to dissolve when applied, or else make it quick and easy to remove. Community groups and government departments coordinate graffiti removal teams.

In some places you can’t buy spray paint unless you’re over 18. Cans of spray paint are locked away in display cases. In a nearby area the local council employs someone to go around and repaint any fences defaced by graffiti. A friend of mine has had his fence repainted 7 times at least, and it took him a while to find out why it was happening! Certainly the amount of graffiti in my local area has dropped substantially in the last year or two, so it appears these methods are working to a great extent.

But is removing the graffiti doing a disservice to the artistic community? Maybe if some of the people behind the graffiti art were taken in hand and trained, they could use their artistic skills in more productive ways. It hardly makes sense to encourage these artists to deface public property, and so commit a crime. But perhaps there are other ways to cooperate with the graffiti artists rather than just opposing them. Graffiti artists can create sanctioned murals for private property owners and get paid for it.

Maybe we need to start at a very basic level, and find a way to encourage the creation of graffiti art on paper or canvas, rather than walls. After all, who would remember Monet or Picasso if they’d created their masterpieces on walls, only to have them painted over the next day? Finding a solution to such a complex situation is never going to be easy, but as more graffiti art is being recognized in galleries around the world, we do need to try.

Steve Dolan loves art in various forms and mediums. Find out more about graffiti as an art form at Graffiti and Urban Art and if you have art that needs framing visit Picture Frames.

By Steve Dolan Published: 11/21/2007

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