Tolstoy Exit Through The Gift Shop Analysis

In the summer of 2013, a graffiti artist by the name of 'Lady Pink' had police barge into her house in Queens and arrest her husband for vandalism. They took her art supplies, photo archives, and many of her prized possessions. She had to sit there, helpless, watching police take away her things. In today's world right now, expressing yourself creatively is one of the most important things you can do to help figure out who you are. A part of creative expression is art. Art makes people happy. Graffiti falls into the art category. For some people, graffiti is what they do to express themselves. Graffiti is art and shouldn't be illegal. Expressing yourself creatively shouldn't be a crime.

Graffiti has been around for more than half a decade and practiced worldwide. However there is debate between whether it is a form of art or vandalism. Graffiti artists’ debate that many do not understand the reason most graffiti artist take the risk of incarceration, fines, injuries, and in some cases death to paint a wall. A graffiti artist can have the simple desire to become recognized, or to create a piece that speaks to their audience as a form of self expression. Because graffiti is associated with gangs and acts of destruction to some many cannot see the history and importance graffiti can have on a worldwide scale. Due to the fact that graffiti is usually produced illegally, meaning it is

Known for his contempt for the government in labeling graffiti as vandalism, Banksy displays his art on public surfaces such as walls, even going as far as to build physical prop pieces. Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti directly himself; however, art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of

In “Graffiti as Career and Ideology”, Lachmann states that organizations “tried to win their members recognition as serious artists by encouraging writers to produce graffiti-style works on canvas and various other media with a view toward their sale to art collectors” (246). Rather than stopping graffiti writers, they are being encouraged to keep producing graffiti-style works to sell. While they aren’t vandalizing anymore and they are producing art on canvas, it is unexpected to further support these “criminals” like the organizations are doing. Some graffiti is even so respected and praised that it is protected. The perfect example of this is that “The stencil work and street art of British artist Banksy, possibly the most well-known contemporary graffiti writer/street artist, has gained such value as a commodity that the work on some of his walls is now protected under the aegis of urban heritage” (McAuliffe and Iveson 139). How can graffiti and its writers be so frowned upon but so many people still praise

From the early humans who painted on cave walls to the angst-ridden teenager getting their kicks from spray painting profanities on the side of a small business, human beings seem to have an intrinsic desire to paint images on the walls that surround them. This has led to many individuals painting on walls without permission. Although the walls cannot speak, city officials and the owners of businesses can and when they do, “Graffiti” is usually one of the words used to describe the images produced. However, although often overlooked, a line does exist between graffiti and street art. Christine Graff writes “Graffiti is defined as ‘writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public

“Exit Through the Gift Shop” is a documentary directed by Banksy, an anonymous street artist, who offers a fascinating point of view on the life of a film maker, whose name is Thierry Guerra. Thierry Guerra is an immigrant from France who’s passion is filming. During a holiday in France he starts to film his cousin who is a famous street artist in France. Guerra captures not only the making of the art pieces but also the risky application on illegal ground. He is so fascinated by this lifestyle that he begins to follow more and more street artists during their work. After meeting the artist ‘Shepard Fairy’ he is convinced of creating a documentary about street art from an authentic perspective.

Behind every piece of art, there is a story, a motive, and an artist. ADD SENTENCE To the average American, when they see street art, they do not think about the story behind it, the artist who created it. After watching the documentary, Exit Through The Gift Shop, the unique world of street art was revealed to me. In this film, a French cameraman, Thierry Guetta, crosses paths with Bansky and ends up documenting a large portion of his work with the intention of creating a documentary about street art. However, half way through the film, the tables turn onto the focus of Guetta’s entry into the street art world and his success as a copyist of Bansky. Ultimately, at the end of the documentary, Banksy reveals the inauthenticity of Guetta’s

To fully understand street art as a concept in itself, it is vital to explore why the art is made on, and for, the street. According to Chung (2009) art on the street “allows artists a platform to reach a broader audience than traditional art forms”. This is supported by Young (2016) who argues that the “street is the biggest gallery you could ever want”, the author goes on to note that often a “galleries audience is self-selecting and homogenous”- belonging in an “elitist art world”. This implies that unlike classical art in galleries, street art cannot discriminate and is open and available to everyone despite their background or beliefs. Not only does the street allow the art to be widely seen, its accessibility indicates the ideas of

At one point in the film, street art became the rave and was being auctioned off in auction houses, but Banksy and other artists did not believe that the focus for their artwork was about the money; rather, it was the passion and expressional aspect of their art pieces. He believed that Thierry's video footage would be the perfect way to depict this passion, but a majority of the footage Thierry had was unusable. However, the usable footage that was used in the documentary was enough to demonstrate the true passion some street artists had. Many have different motives of creating their artwork as well. For example, Borf, creates street art in commemoration of his friend that passed away and even his alias is in memory of the friend who passed. Banksy’s purpose of creating art is often as a form to criticize social problems or just for humor at times. A very striking example of his artwork as a form to express social problems was when he went to the Gaza strip and created a trompe-l'oeil pieces of street art against the wall, which at the time was experiencing a vast amount of conflict and civil unrest. This was extremely dangerous, but Banksy managed to place it on the wall without any harm, which shows his dedication to his

Generally most people look and take graffiti as a form of destruction and wanting to cause violence, but in the artist’s mind they want to be creative and help the people around them by making art to cheer someone up or create a sense of creativity in others. They don’t do it to go to jail or because they want to pay a fine they do it because they are open minded and creative. For instance, “A lot of attention is given to the ‘broken window’ theory, which says that signs of disorder like petty vandalism, fare jumping … and yes, graffiti, open the window to larger crimes,” Verel told The Huffington Post. “But little is paid to the ways graffiti is harnessed for good in a form that’s both constructive and authentic”(Patrick Verel). They are taking this broken windows theory too far and only saying it can cause bigger crimes. Some graffiti artists are trying to uplift the neighborhoods and the people they live around with creative art. Also not all graffiti is bad enough to want artists to commit a crime. While making this art or graffiti I don’t think that these artist are trying to harm the buildings in any way, but they should ask for permission if they aren’t allowed to be painting on these buildings. This is to let the owner of the building know that they mean no harm to the environment or their workplace. For example, “Adam Cooper, cultural strategy officer for the mayor of London, thinks

However, even though graffiti is portrayed as art by many people, some people think that all kinds of graffiti is vandalism. They think that it is a dirty way to destroy a city, and a bad influence to young adults and children growing up. In the article “Vandals hit 18 statues in Grant Park with graffiti” by Carlos Sadovi, public buildings had been covered and nearly destroyed with tags by young teenages. When Sandovi says, “People, especially children, like to go up to the statues and pose with them for pictures and touch them. He said this is the first time they have been vandalized here.” In this case, the children of the city will have to suffer through. People can also argue that the graffiti is a bad influence for the children. However, even though some young teenages decided to vandalize a building, doesn't make graffiti vandalism. There are graffiti artists that even make their paints out of wheat, so that if they

You're walking down the street and looking around at all the unbelievable graffiti art all over the walls, then realize that people are getting fined and prosecuted for doing it. People of the DPM crew in London were creating amazing art on a lot of regular walls to make a walk down the street more enjoyable, but then they were put in jail for 11 years because of it, and they had to pay 1.3 million dollars for graffiti related damages (Cathcart-Keays). There should not be laws for graffiti, because it can represent a lot more than just a drawing, and it doesn’t affect anyone in a bad way.

If the person wants the graffiti on their building, it is not vandalism and is already legal. Ngo also compares alcohol and tobacco use to graffiti. This is a weak argument because a person chooses to consume the substances and suffer their own personal consequences. A graffiti artist chooses another person's property and inflicts damage to it. Freedom of speech is a protected right we have as Americans, but it does not and should not extend to protect vandalism.

Graffiti has put a major impact on the way people look at their everyday life. It was not used so much here in the United States but was used overseas. Overseas, graffiti, or street art, was used or played as a sport, just like baseball is Americas sport. There are different laws that are put over there than what there are here. They can get away with some of the things that they paint or make over there. If we tried some of that type of work over here, we would get in trouble and possibly serve time for vandalizing someone else’s property. There are many biased outlooks on graffiti, but it should be considered art in all places because of all the time, effort, and design the artist put into their work.

There are kids out there living on the streets that just want to express what they are feeling, they love it and want to share it but the only place they feel like doing that is on the streets, for everyone to see and where they grew up. d my opinion there's kids out there who have talent better than some artists for that matter and are these kids are not being recognized for it because people have this vision in their heads that graffiti is a crime. Instead of being recognised and paid for their work they are getting arrested. Although In my opinion i believe graffiti is a form of art, it is attractive to the eye and it has a meaning to it. Graffiti is a form of self-expression and, I think that self- expression is a form of art. Some artists paint on canvas while others paint on buildings, either way it is still someone's creativity at work. There is much worse going on in the world that people should be worrying about more than graffiti, but yes, technically it is vandalism, but it doesn't harm anyone in any way.