On the Button

Two years ago, I wrote about Banksy, the pseudonymous English street artist whose work sells for millions of dollars—indeed, the artist is believed to net $20 million a year for work that is part graffiti and part performance art.

Part of what I wrote was about the incredible high cost of street art and graffiti—that our federal, state, and local governments spend more on cleaning up and removing this unsolicited public art than on all the various artistic endowments, museums, and grants combined.  Graffiti is our most expensive public art program.

Despite this, I love the work by Banksy.  While our politics differ slightly, I admire the satirical humor of the pieces.  I even admire how the artist has managed to remain anonymous—mostly—while earning millions of dollars, publishing books, and holding exhibitions, as well as continuing to create new works of art all over the world. 

That Banksy has managed to remain anonymous for more than 25 years is truly amazing and if you consider that most of his work has been done clandestinely, almost exclusively without the property owners’ permission, and that it has been done in cities with extensive closed circuit television coverage, it is beyond amazing that Banksy’s identity still remains a secret.  On two occasions, part of the performance art was printing large quantities of fake British bank notes (well, technically, they were British Banksy notes) and even though that is against British law, I doubt that MI5 has spent much time trying to find the artist.

There are a lot of theories about Banksy’s secret identity:  just about every art publication has featured at least one theory.  Seven years ago, HBO produced a documentary that claimed Banksy was actually a team of seven women working together.  The leader, it said, was a blonde, who appeared in many of the artworks.  (Since many of the works are in black and white, we’ll just have to take HBO’s word that the woman is a blonde).  You can probably gather all the people who believe this nonsense and fit them inside a Prius.

Seven years ago, the NYPD arrested Richard Pfeiffer almost in the act of creating what was obviously a work by Banksy.  Pfeiffer, a native of Brooklyn, admitted to being an artist and still had the black marker in his possession when arrested.  After six months of investigation, it turned out that Pfeiffer and his fiancé were simply admiring the work and that the marker found in his pocket was not the type used to create the work.  I’m not sure exactly what the criminal charge would have been, anyway, since the owner of the property sold the section of the wall containing the graffiti for six figures.  Malicious Wealth Giving?  Felonious Enrichment?

Ignoring all the nonsensical theories, there is one credible candidate.  Students at London’s Queen Mary University used computer mapping to plot 140 known works, along with a criminology theory called geographic profiling, to determine that Banksy was actually a Bristol street artist named Robin Gunningham.  If you google “Gunningham + Banksy”, you get over 23,000 links….

Actually, I don’t care who Banksy is and I don’t really want to know the truth.  It is kind of like watching Penn and Teller do magic tricks.  I am a huge fan of their shows and I have absolutely no idea how they do that bullet catching trick.   I’m fairly sure that if I were to spend a few minutes on the internet, I could learn exactly how to do that trick….And never be able to enjoy watching them perform it again.  No thanks!  I’m pretty sure that I don’t want to know more about Robin Gunningham, either.

There is, however, one man who we can be pretty sure is not Banksy.  (Well, two, since my artistic talent is so advanced that I can almost draw a straight line with a ruler.)   Until recently, William Gannon was a town counselor in the small English town on Pembroke.  Being a politician was only a part-time job:  Gannon earns his livelihood as an artist, producing murals at playgrounds and hospitals that he freely admits are reminiscent of Banksy’s work. 

Recently, a photo surfaced of Gannon creating a piece of “public art” at a skateboard park in the 1980’s.  The photo clearly shows the artist, with a spray paint can in hand, creating a piece of graffiti similar to those that made Banksy famous a decade later.  Overnight, newspaper and internet stories shouted that the mystery of Banksy’s real identity had at last been solved:  Gannon was Banksy.

Besieged by reporters, art dealers, and people hoping that Banksy would spray paint something, anything, on the sides of their buildings (or on themselves), Gannon found it impossible to continue working as a city counselor, so a few days ago, he resigned to focus on his new project:  Convincing people he is not Banksy.  This should be fairly easy, since Gannon is absolutely not Banksy.  There is documented proof that Gannon was in England at the times when new Banksy artworks were created in North America, in Gaza, and in Australia.  And Pest Control, the public art agents that handle all of the commercial details for Banksy’s art sales, have confirmed that Gannon is not Banksy.

While Gannon might not be Banksy, he has certainly learned a few lessons about profiting from performance art.  Right now, he’s producing buttons stating:  “I am not Banksy.”

Each limited edition button is numbered and autographed by the artist who is not Banksy.  To get one, you have to promise that you are not Banksy, either.