Street art’s anticommercial critique was absorbed back into the market

Evidence

Such commodification wasn’t confined to pop music. The art world itself mirrored the era’s poptimist tendencies. Street art, which initially seemed poised to reinvigorate the gallery scene, devolved into kitsch. Banksy’s 2010 documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, attempted to make a cautionary tale out of Mr. Brainwash, a sub-Warholian prankster who excited the market with cliché pieces, such as Michael Jackson with Marilyn Monroe’s blond locks, and Einstein holding a sign that reads “Love is the answer.” Banksy’s critique hardly stuck; Madonna asked Mr. Brainwash to design an album cover for her third greatest hits collection, Celebration. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 255

Categorization

• XREF: Same absorption dynamic as the Gaga/Oreo pairing — art’s critique gets re-commodified, a recurring mechanism across periods. — connects to: Pop art’s ironic critique was inverted and co-opted by the market. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 865