Brendan Kelly: The new Montreal Banksy exhibit not as radical as the artist

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Banksy doesn’t endorse any commercialization of his work.

The British graffiti artist who is never seen in public is a radical street creator. He is all about fighting the power. So yeah, he’s not down with companies trying to make big bucks off his work. In other words, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine he wouldn’t love The Art of Banksy Without Limits, which opens Friday in Montreal at La Maison du Festival and runs until Oct. 18.

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Here’s what Banksy says on his website about the commercialization of his work:

“Are you a company looking to licence Banksy art for commercial use? Then you’ve come to the right place — you can’t. Only Pest Control Office have permission to use or license my artwork. If someone else has granted you permission, you don’t have permission. I wrote ‘copyright is for losers’ in my (copyrighted) book and still encourage anybody to take and amend my art for their own personal amusement, but not for profit or making it look like I’ve endorsed something when I haven’t.”

The producer of the exhibition, the Romanian music promoter Sorina Burlacu, told me Thursday that the show is not endorsed by Banksy but she believes he wouldn’t object to it.

“Banksy doesn’t make money out of the shows but he is I think very content about having shows about his art because our aim is to spread the truth about Banksy in the world,” said Burlacu.

She also said: “He’s not involved.” She said the Pest Control Office, which takes care of his work, verified which works in the show were actually done by Banksy but those 40 “originals” — actually numbered prints — are a very small part of the show. Most of the work is created by other artists based on Banksy’s work.

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That’s the other ironic twist here. First, it’s a global touring exhibition that is explicitly commercializing the work of an artist who has devoted much of his career to ferociously attacking consumerism and commercialization. But just as disturbing, it’s a show on an artist yet most of the works here weren’t actually created by the artist in question. That’s just weird with gusts up to downright wrong.

“Well his work is actually on the street,” said Burlacu. “We try to bring the street into a gallery. So we painted some murals that are very close to the originals on the walls. We work with street artists.”

So mostly it’s the work of anonymous street artists imitating Banksy. To be kind, I suppose you could compare it to a Rolling Stones cover band. And like a good cover band that reminds you of how great the original artist is, the Banksy show does work as a homage to one of the unique voices of contemporary street art.

You catch the irreverent wit of Banksy, perfectly encapsulated in the stencil showing John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in a scene from the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction. But instead of pointing guns, Banksy has transformed the weapons into… bananas. London Transported painted over the original stencil, claiming it was too violent. Or you have Christ With Shopping Bags, which is exactly that: Jesus Christ not on the cross but instead looking like he’s been crucified by too much shopping in designer boutiques.

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Banksy’s radical acerbic force is captured in Napalm, which shows Kim Phuc, the screaming young girl from that classic Vietnam war photo, the photo taken after her village had been sprayed with napalm by American troops. Bansky shows her hand in hand with Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald.

The work still carries a real force, the equivalent of an artist launching hand grenades from the peanut gallery in an effort to force us to look at the hypocrisy of the political economic system that rules our lives. At his best, Banksy defines what artistic dissidence is all about. Pussy Riot did it with feminist punk rock. Banksy does it with stencils on the walls of the world.

But that’s why this exhibition is so problematic. Love him or loathe him, Banksy is authentic. He has said he has never pursued commercial success and that to succeed is a sign of failure for a graffiti artist. So what would he think of an exhibition that features unnamed artists imitating him? To ask the question is to answer it.

“He’s just trying to make people aware that we’re consuming too much,” said Burlacu. “And that all these traditions like Santa and Christianity became consumerist.”

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But, I said to her, this show is all about consumerism too.

“Our purpose is to spread the spirit of Banksy in the world,” she countered. “If Banksy had something against that, he would’ve interfered … for us, we’re proud to spread his legacy to the world.”

But does the show really capture the spirit of Banksy? That couldn’t be less clear.

AT A GLANCE: The Art of Banksy Without Limits runs Aug. 16 to Oct. 18 at La Maison du Festival, 305 Ste-Catherine St. W. Tickets are $30-40 for regular entry, and $55-65 for “premium” tickets that let you skip the queue and “spray paint Banksy’s iconic art on your own T-shirt.” For details, go to artofbanksyca.com/montreal.

bkelly@postmedia.com

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