Banksy On Charlie Hebdo

RELATED: Via Talking Points Memo.

Staffers for satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo said Thursday that the publication will come out next week, after gunmen killed 12 people in a terror attack on its Paris offices. “The Charlie Hebdo newspaper will come out next Wednesday,” lawyer Richard Malka told the Agence France-Presse. Malka said the issue would be shorter than normal, but that a whopping one million copies would be printed -- far more than its normal circulation, which is less than 100,000. Patrick Pelloux, a columnist for Charlie Hebdo, indicated that surviving staff were working hard to put the issue out in the midst of their mourning.

UPDATE: CNN points out that Banksy posted the artwork of another artist.

The elusive artist Banksy is known for producing powerful imagery, so it makes sense that more than 100,000 people would share his Instagrammed tribute to those killed in Paris on Wednesday. Except the artist says it's not his. The caption on the Instagram says "RIP." A tag was later added for French illustrator Lucille Clerc, who is based in London. "We can confirm this is not by Banksy," the representative said. Clerc tweeted her tribute to the dead, among whom were several respected political cartoonists, with the caption "Break one, thousand will rise #CharlieHebdo #JeSuisCharlie #raiseyourpencilforfreedom."

TRAILER: Banksy Does New York

Debuting on HBO tomorrow night.

Over the course of a month-long residency in New York, Banksy and his team took to the streets – secretly creating a variety of public work ranging from elaborate conceptual stunts to traditional graffiti art. Constructed under the dark of night, each new piece was then announced daily on his #BANKSYNY Instagram account and chronicled on his pop-up website creating a community wide scavenger hunt. Constantly evading a citywide search by the NYPD, Banksy’s work created a public response that was an equal mix of reverence and derision, with some of the more controversial statements sending waves of reaction throughout the city. From a Central Park stand where priceless original works were anonymously sold for $60 to a mural on the entrance to the Hustler strip club, to a junkyard in Willets Point, Queens; New York City served as the canvas for this street art vigilante.

NEW YORK CITY: Banksy Painting Raises $615K For AIDS Thrift Shop

The painting that Banksy donated to Housing Works has sold at auction for $615,000. What an amazing windfall for them.

Banksy Donates Piece To AIDS Thrift Shop

Two weeks ago an "unknown person" paid $50 for a rather mundane landscape painting on sale in the East 23rd Street location of Housing Works, the NYC chain of thrift shops that benefits people with AIDS and the homeless. Today the painting "mysteriously" reappeared in the store's window with the addition of a seated Nazi soldier. Banksy calls the piece: "The banality of the banality of evil." According to Gothamist, crowds are presently taking photos outside of Housing Works, which will put the piece up for auction tonight at a starting bid of $76,000.  Many more photos at the link.

New York Times Rejects Banksy Op-Ed That Slams One World Trade Center

Via Yahoo News:

Banksy, the elusive British street artist nearing the end of a month-long New York City residency, published an op-ed column on his website Sunday slamming the design of One World Trade Center, the 104-story skyscraper scheduled to be opened on the World Trade Center site next year. "As a visitor staying New York for the past few weeks one thing has become very clear to me," Banksy wrote in the op-ed. "You've got to do something about the new World Trade Center. That building is a disaster. Well no, disasters are interesting. One World Trade centre [sic] is a non-event. It's vanilla. It looks like something they would build in Canada." Banksy submitted the op-ed to the New York Times, which declined to publish it. "We couldn't agree on either the piece or the art, so we did reject it," Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times, told Yahoo News.

Banksy's website is here.

Banksy Stripped From NYC Titty Bar

After costumed strippers posed with Banksy's latest installation, a metal-cutting torch was used to strip the image from the garage door of Larry Flynt's Huster Club in Manhattan. Gothamist reports:

The piece, which went up early yesterday morning and drew crowds all day, seems destined for a framed place of honor inside the strip club. That's right, soon enough on 51st street you'll be able to slip singles into a g-string as you admire the craftsmanship of the world's most famous street artist. Plenty of Hustler's "entertainers" were keen to get a photo with the piece before its imminent removal, and at least four of them flaunted their magnificently manufactured breasts and smiles next to the tag. One stripper actually put her hands on the piece itself, immediately sparking a roar of condemnation from the crowd. "Lighten up," she snapped back. "It's gonna look like shit in a week."

Many more photos are at the link.

Banksy Tags West Chelsea

Stand by for that garage door to be ripped down and sold for a jillion dollars in one of the nearby fancy galleries. (Via Gothamist)

Banksy On Graffiti

In the very divided comment thread of today's post about the vandalized Chick-Fil-A franchise, JMG reader Ish points out British artist Banksy's take on graffiti. In general, I oppose punishing the middle man, such as a franchisee or one of its employees.

Banksy's Take On The Olympics

A more whimsical take is here.

Cardinal Sin: New Banksy Sculpture References Catholic Molestation Scandals

Famed pop artist Banksy references the ongoing molestation scandals in the Catholic Church with a new sculpture on display in a London museum.

Cardinal Sin is a bust with its face sawn off and replaced by blank tiles, designed as a response to the child abuse scandal in the Catholic church. In a statement, Banksy said: "I'm never sure who deserves to be put on a pedestal or crushed under one." The sculpture was unveiled at the Walker Art Gallery, where it is sitting alongside 17th Century religious art. The bathroom tiles have been put in place of the priest's face to create a pixelated effect."The statue? I guess you could call it a Christmas present. At this time of year it's easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity - the lies, the corruption, the abuse." Cardinal Sin is now in a room with an altarpiece painted for the Archbishop of Seville by the Spanish artist Murillo in 1673 and Rubens' painting The Virgin and Child with St Elizabeth and the Child Baptist.

(Tipped by JMG reader Julian)

Banksy Directs Simpsons Opening

Gothamist notes that last night's opening sequence of The Simpsons was story-boarded by famed graffiti artist Banksy.

Banksy's Exit Throught The Gift Shop

From the coming documentary about British graffiti artist Banksy:

Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner with spectacular results. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the worlds most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interview. As Banksy describes it, Its basically the story of how one man set out to film the un—filmable. And failed

Banksy On Wall Street

I'm not all that wild about street artist Banksy, but this billboard-sized bit about Wall Street (put up in Soho, I think) made me laugh. Note that "real" graffiti artists have already tagged it with "damn rats."

(Via - Gothamist/Jake Dobkin)