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.
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,” burlacu said.