Interview with NYC Street Art Blog 9 December 2016.

The following Interview about my latest book on streetartncy.org

Ulrich Blanché on Banksy: Urban Art in a Material World

December 9, 2016

Penned by Ulrich Blanché, Banksy: Urban Art in a Material World focuses primarily on Banksy’s relationship with consumer culture.  With its thoroughly-researched appendix documenting everything from Banksy record album covers to his exhibition catalogs, it is the first comprehensive academic study of Banksy’s art.  An interview with the author follows:
Your book, Banksy: Urban Art in a Material World, began as a dissertational thesis.  Why did you choose to focus your studies on Banksy? What is it specifically about him that so intrigued you?
I was first introduced to street art and stencils in 2006 on a trip to Melbourne, Australia. And while visiting a museum bookshop there, I discovered Banksy’s book Wall and Piece. I was instantly fascinated and found myself going through it page by page. I liked the way each of his pieces has a distinct message or lesson that is transmitted in a humorous way.  I knew then that I would like to research and write about his work.

You draw parallels between Banksy and the contemporary British artist Damien Hirst. You discuss their collaborations, as well. Can you tell us something about that?  What are some of the essential similarities between the two? What did each have to gain by collaborating?
It might still shock some people that Hirst, the personification of capitalism, and Banksy, the art guerilla, collaborated. They knew each other since about 2000, and Hirst supported Banksy early on. It was kind of like Warhol and Basquiat.  The established artist gains coolness and the newer artist gains credibility.  The two artists admired each other’s works – and both Banksy and Hirst shared a morbid and humorous sensibility. 
Among Banksy’s subjects are both capitalism and religion – often merged in a particular image.  Do any particular images stand out to you? And why do they?
Banksy does not really focus on religion except in relation to consumption. Shopping/ Money is the god of today. No particular work stands out for me. Some are weaker; some are better.

To what do you attribute Banksy’s extraordinary commercial success?
I suspect that Banksy actually earns much less than people think he does. His income comes from the sale of prints, books, DVDs… The people who bought a Banksy for 50 quid 15 years ago or received a Banksy as a present have profited  tremendously.
As Banksy rails against consumerism, he — himself — is a master at manipulating consumers.  Why might we have become such a society of consumers? Any thoughts?
We are easily manipulated, even when we know we are being manipulated.

How essential are the streets to Banksy’s success?
The street is his canvas – it is the means he uses to communicate. To remove the street from Banksy’s work is like removing a figure from a Rembrandt. If you manage to keep the context with photos, videos, background info, the work may survive indoors – once it’s no longer on the street. In Banksy’s words: “’I don’t know if street art ever really works indoors. If you domesticate an animal, it goes from being wild and free to sterile, fat and sleepy. So maybe the art should stay outside. Then again, some old people get a lot of comfort from having a pet around the house.”
Where is it all going? Will Banksy’s popularity and commercial success continue to rise? Will Banksy continue to use the streets as a canvas? Or will he become less dependent on them? What are your thoughts?
Street Art is over.  Most works on the street today are authorized murals or pieces in areas where the artist wants to be seen and photographed by the “right” people — whoever that might be.  Street art has become urban art for Instagram. Banksy will last. He will put a few works on the street every year and pull off a big event every few years. I hope he will publish another huge book of his works or lead a little revolution somewhere. That would be fun.

Originally written in German and published by Tectum, Banksy: Urban Art in a Material World has been translated into English and is available here.
Interview conducted and edited by Lois Stavsky; images 2, 4 & 5 Creative Commons & 3 captured by Lenny Collado in NYC

Vortrag Francis Bacon Stuttgart 15.12.16 und 5.1.17

2nd date: I will repeat my lecture about Bacon's Monkeys & Popes an January 5th, 2017 at 18h, also in the Staatsgalerie.

Stuttgarter Zeitung: "am 5. Januar um 18 Uhr wiederholt Ulrich Blanché von der Universität Heidelberg seinen viel beachteten Vortrag „Francis Bacon – Von Affen und Päpsten“ (Metzler-Saal im Altbau)."

On Thurs, 15.12.16, at 16.30h I gave a lecture on the subject "of Monkeys and Popes" in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart as part of the exhibition on Francis Bacon.

the room was full, more that 80 people.

Link to the exhibition.

Am 5.1.17 um 18h werde ich meinen Vortrag zu Bacons Affen und Päpsten ein zweites Mal halten, wieder in der Stattsgalerie.

Am Do, 15.12.16 um 16.30h hielt ich in der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart im Rahmen der Ausstellung zu Francis Bacon einen Vortrag zum Thema "Von Affen und Päpsten".


Link zur Ausstellung.

I spoke at the MUCA Opening

On December 8, 2016 I gave a speech about the terminology and relevance of Urban Art at the  MUCA-Opening. the MUCA is the first Museum for Urban Art in Germany.

many media reported about this opening, e.g. FOCUS Online, Abendzeitung München, Bild, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Münchner Merkur - München and tz München.

See also here.

Here a short summary of the opening.




I was one of three speakers, the others were the founder, CEO and collector Christian Utz and the 2nd major of Munich, Josef Schmid.

Address:
MUCA Hotterstr. 12
80331 München

New publication about Keith Haring in the Urban Creativity Academic Journal

I published an article about Keith Haring in the peer reviewed Urban Creativity Academic Journal, my essay is called "Keith Haring - a Street Artist?"


Center, Periphery: Practice Vol. 2 / Nº 1Volume 2 / 2016


Link to the article

Short interview with Le Grand Jeu about my book "Banksy - Urban art in a Material World"

here's a short interview with me on Le Grand Jeu about my book "Banksy - Urban art in a Material World".

Link to Le Grand Jeu

Banksys Dismaland. Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch am 29.11.2016

Dienstag, 29.11.2016
18.30 Uhr
Sitzungssaal (Raum 117)
An der Hochschule 2, 76726 Germersheim


Die Veranstaltung wird organisiert am
Fachbereichs Translations-, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft der Universität Mainz, Außenstelle Germersheim.
 
Wegbeschreibung

Dismaland war ein temporäres Kunstprojekt des Street Art Künstlers Banksy im Jahr 2015.
Das Projekt, das das Gelände eines ehemaligen Spaßbads im Südwesten Englands
umnutzte, lotete die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Mediums Themenpark aus. Dabei kam es zu einer Verquickung von künst-lerischen Arbeiten mit Themenparkelementen und
verschiedenen Aktionen mit aktivistischem Potential. An der Schnittstelle zwischen
Ausstellung und Themenpark spannte Dismaland so ein Feld zwischen Kunst und Populärkultur auf, das es erfordert, Banksys Arbeit aus mehreren Blickwinkeln zu beleuchten und
sowohl kunstwissen-schaftliche Perspektiven als auch die Sicht des Themenpark-forschers
miteinzubeziehen. Bei unserem Workshop zu Banksys Arbeit haben Sie die Gelegenheit,mit Forschern beider Richtungen ins Gespräch zu kommen und über die Zukunft von Kunst
und Vergnügen zu diskutieren.
Mit:

Dr. Ulrich Blanché, Kunsthistoriker, Universität Heidelberg
Dr. Florian Freitag, Amerikanist, JGU Mainz
Prof. Dr. Thomas Hensel, Professor für Kunstund
Designtheorie,
Hochschule Pforzheim
Ariane Schwarz, Theaterwissenschaftlerin, Universität Hildesheim

Tagung zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Hans Dickel

am 11.und 12.11.16 organisiere ich in Erlangen eine Tagung zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Hans Dickel gemeinsam mit Prof Martina Baleva aus Basel am Erlanger Institut für Kunstgeschichte, welche die Veranstaltung auch unterstützt. GEfördert vom Freundeskreis der Erlanger Kunstgeschichte.

Link zum Erlanger Institut.

Tagungsprogramm:
Programm als PDF


Freitag, 11. November 2016, 13.45 – 17.45 Uhr | Senatssaal im Kollegienhaus (KH 1.011)

13.45 | Begrüßung, Prof. Dr. Martina Baleva (Basel), Dr. Ulrich Blanché (Heidelberg)
14.00 | Wenn Handlungen Form werden.Die konzeptuelle Wende der Neuen Realisten um 1960, Dr. Melitta Kliege (Nürnberg)
14.30 | Antike Zeichenbücher. Eine Studie zur Geschichte der Philosophenausbildung, Prof. Dr. Jörg Trempler (Berlin)
15.00 | Spurensicherung, Dr. Ulrich Luckhardt (Ingelheim)
15.30 | Kunst als dritte Natur, Dr. Matthias Bruhn (Berlin)
16.00 | Kaffeepause
16.15 | Goethe, Rembrandt und die Ikonographie, Dr. Martin Sonnabend (Frankfurt / Main)
16.45 | Eine „Verkündigung“ Holbeins in Erlangen? Dr. Guido Messling (Wien)
17.15 | Sichtbare Bilderwelt Berlins, die Amerikanisierung in Deutschland und die Praktiken des Gedenkens in Deutschland und Zentraleuropa, Dr. John Czaplicka (Berlin)

Freitag, 11. November 2016, Beginn: 18 Uhr | Wassersaal in der Orangerie

Grußworte
des Instituts f. Kunstgeschichte: Prof. Dr. Christina Strunck
der Studierenden: Sonja Kammerlander M.A.
des Freundeskreis des Instituts: Peter Mörtel
der Erlanger Kollegen: Prof. Dr. Ursula Rautenberg, Lehrstuhl f. Buchwissenschaft
Festvortrag
von Prof. Dr. Werner Busch (Berlin)
Füßlis „Nachtmahr“. Eine Pathosformel und ihre Folgen

Samstag, 12.11.2016, 9 – 12.30 Uhr | KH 1.011

09.00 | Angus Fairhurst, Dr. Ulrich Blanché (Heidelberg)
09.30 | Die Kräfte hinter den Formen: Natur in der Gegenwartskunst mit Blick auf Joseph Beuys, Dr. Magdalena Holzhey (Krefeld)
10.00 | Balkanismus als analytische Kategorie der Kunstgeschichte, Prof. Dr. Martina Baleva (Basel)
10.30 | Impulse für die Kunstvermittlung, Dr. Dunja Schneider (Linz)
11.00 | Kaffeepause
11.15 | Bacchische Festivitäten im Werk Salomon Gessners, Dr. Thilo Westermann (Berlin)
11.45 | Über die Synthese von Architektur und Skulptur in der klassischen Moderne, Dipl. Ing. (FH) Marian Wild (Erlangen)
12.15 | Schlusswort

Book presentation in Barcelona October 2016

The DAAD supports my trip to give a presentation about my latest book about Banksy, in Barcelona at the “Unlock. Art publishing fair” organized by well-known academic Street Art researchers Javier Abarca from and Openwalls Conference.

"Unlock" takes place in Barcelona at La Nau Bòstik from 27 until 30 October 2016, Carrer Ferran Turné, 11, 08027 Barcelona, Spain.
Link to the Unlock fair.

Press-Announcement of my lecture in Spanish.

In Spanish:

El primer estudio académico sobre Banksy

El primer estudio académico sobre el británico Banksy se presentará en Unlock. El libro lleva por título Banksy: urban art in a material world y está firmado por el académico alemán Ulrich Blanchè, que estará en Barcelona para hablarnos sobre sobre su libro y sobre el artista urbano más famoso del mundo.

Este libro trata acerca de Banksy como artista urbano contemporáneo y sobre su relación con la cultura del consumo. Examina el trabajo de Banksy, tanto el realizado en la calle sin permiso como sus exposiciones. El estudio profundiza en determinadas obras del artista que sirven para demostrar su versatilidad y al tiempo son representativas de distintas épocas de su trabajo.

La investigación académica sobre arte urbano es un campo aún relativamente joven. Solo en los últimos tres años vienen surgiendo congresos y seminarios, casi todos ellos en universidades de Europa, en los que una nueva generación de investigadores está confluyendo y adquiriendo fuerza.
Ulrich Blanchè está entre las figuras más visibles de esta emergente escena. Su libro sobre Banksy, que se publicó primero en alemán, es una versión reducida de su tesis doctoral.
Presentación de Banksy: urban art in a material world 
Sábado 29, 18:30h
Nau Bostik, Carrer Ferran Turné, 1–11

Presentation at ICA in London, October 10, 2016

On October 10, 2016 I was invited to give a presentation about "Street Art vs. Gallery Art and its Viewers" at at Street Art Symposium entitled "Symposium: Art on the Streets" at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London.

What happens when street artists exhibit in a gallery? Blanché analyses artistic strategies often used by artists who work in both contexts.

My talk is in Session  1: "Art on the Streets" which starts at 13.10.

I present at the "Street Art & Poésie - Poets on the walls" conference in Nice

On Thursday, September 22, 2016 I gave a presentation entitled "“Laugh now but one day we’ll be in Charge” - Street Art poets: From Holzer’s truisms to Banksy" at the Street Art & Poésie - Poets on the walls" conference in Nice, France.

The conference was in French and English.

Link to the program

Abstract (Scowl down for English)

« Riez bien mais un jour, nous serons au pouvoir » Les poetes du street art:

Des truismes d'Holzer a Banksy

Les graffeurs sont plus des typographes que des poetes. Bien que le street art soit plus pictural que le graff, nombre de street artists veulent avant tout etre lus. Dans le graff, il s'agit plus des lettres et de leur style, tandis que le street art met en avant le message, qui est bien souvent ecrit. Des street artists tels que Banksy usent d'image au format reduit ou de formules courtes. Ses aphorismes inscrits sur les murs, souvent en lettres decoupees au pochoir, se posent en critiques acerbes. Inversement, ses pochoirs d'images illustrant frequemment des mots d'esprit ou des expressions argotiques sont, en ce sens, des boutades visuelles poetiques. L'aphorisme, le slogan poetique, le mot d'esprit sembleut cons:us pour la rue, qui est desormais une plateforme de communication au meme titre que les reseaux sociaux tels qu'Instagram ou Facebook. Lestreetartist operant dans l'illegalite n'a guere le temps d'inscrire un long poeme tout comme l'utilisateur d'Instagram ne veut pas perdre de temps a une lecture extensive et tous les deux cherchent un Iien pertinent et efficace entre un slogan poetique et sa situation dans l'espace urbain. Les pionniers du street art parmi lesquels Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger et les Guerilla Girls et leurs utilisations de slogans ou de truismes poetiques a visee de critique sociale, ont inspire des artistes tels que Bank:sy. Cette communication portera sur les slogans poetiques utilises par les street artistes et apportera des illustrations datant des annees 1980 jusqu'a nos jours. L'attention sera portee sur les variations en termes qualitatifs et quantitatifs de ces aphorismes de rue, des differentes typographies utilisees ainsi que des lieux dans lesquels ils apparaissent. On considerera egalerneut l'influence a la fois de la societe de consommation ainsi que des arts et de la litterature.

Ulrich Blanché est Maître de Conférences en histoire de l'art a l'Universite de Heidelberg (Allemagne). Depuis 2006, son domaine de recherche concerne le street art. Il a soutenu une these en 2011 portant sur la societe de consommation, la culture et le commerce de Hirst a Banksy publiie en anglais saus le titre Banksy Urban Art in a Material World ([Part 1], Tectum, 2016). Il a obtenu un Master en communication a Sydney et un MA. en Sciences des media et arts dramatiques a l'universite d'Erlangen-Nuremberg. Il a ecrit son premier ouvrage sur Banksy en 2010 "Street Artivist Banksy" (Tectum).

 

In English:

Graffiti Writers are more typesetters than poets. Although Street art is more picture-based than Style Writing, many Street Art wants to be read. Graffiti Writing is more about letters and style, Street Art is rather about messages that can be often written ones. Street Artists like Banksy use reduced images or reduced texts. His short written, often political aphorisms on walls, often in stenciled letters, are pointed remarks. Also, the other way around, his picture-stencils are often illustrations of short jokes or slang expressions - poetic one-liners visualized.

The aphorism, the poetic slogan, the one-liner seems to be made for the street and its today’s digital equivalent, Instagram and Facebook. The illegal working Street Artist does not have time to attach a long poem and the passer-by or the Instagram user does not want to read a lot either. Both look for the site-specific, fruitful connection between a poetic slogan and its location on the street.

Already Street Art pioneers Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and the Guerilla Girls used socio-critical slogans or poetic “truisms” (Holzer) on the street and inspired later artists like Banksy.

This paper draws a line of examples of the afore mentioned Street Artists using poetic slogans from 1980 until today. I will look at changes in quality and quantity of the used aphorisms on the street, the fonts used, their site-specifity and their reflexion of consumer society, art and literature.

Keywords:

truisms, site-specifity, text-image-relations, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Guerilla Girls, Banksy, social criticism