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Millionaire beautiful people Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie did a lot more than just browse while attending the latest Banksy show in downtown LA; they scooped up three pieces, including the $226,000 painting "Picnic", which depicts a family of white people eating while several Africans look on hungrily. Some say the husband in the party looks similar to Pitt.
But the spending spree didn't end there. According to Star Magazine, and reported by the NY Daily News, the couple also tossed a sculpture of a white bust with a bleeding bullet wound to the head into their shopping cart, as well as a painting of an 18th century aristocrat getting a pie thrown at him.
No word on whether the Malibu couple bid on the controverisal painted elephant, whose cost would be peanuts for the affluent pair.
The clear irony of Brangelina owning a painting like "Picnic", particularily at such a high pricetag, was obviously lost on the pair. However, if you're going to blow a quarter-million on a canvas of oil, it's probably best that you do so on something that might remind you of how hypocritical you are in regard to the needs of third-world countries.
Reports of the UK artist Banksy laughing all the way to the bank have, so far, remained unsubstantiated.
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I wonder if 99% of the people at the show (the one open to the public) realize that they are just as guilty? Hell, I wonder if Banksy realizes the irony of "Banksy" being nothing more than a really great brand, no different from McDonalds, the kind of thing he "artfully" rages against. Or the fact that any McDonalds probably has a far more diverse range of people than the whitewash that was the Banksy show.
Whatever happened to creating art for the sake of creating art, not to make didactic, banal "statements"?
I personally don't mind Banksy's style, and sometimes his message is funny in a somewhat obvious way...I just feel the art/designs/ahem...political cartoons would feel more at home on a t-shirt than a gallery. But I guess that would be $elling out.
that posting made my day. thank you.
That was such an idiotic and on the nose post. Pierce is so content with himself for inane observations he thinks are clever: The rich Malibu superstars who aren't even aware of the irony of their purchase! Sure Jolie is rich, so what? So is Richard Branson. So is George Soros. Rich people can care about the world and do a lot to change it. Tony Pierce should spend 10 minutes away from the Jolie gossip pages and take a look at the actual work she's done for Africans and orphans there. She's earned her stripes. And when you get down to it, I'm sure Pierce is a "millionaire" compared to the desperately poor in Africa while all he seems to do is spew tepid satire.
Re: Banksy's supposed lack of irony- see his painting of a painting being sold at auction with the words: "I can't believe you morons pay money for this shit."
I agree with John.
Angelina Jolie actually does quite a bit of charity work for Africa. More than you do, Tony. You need to relax and not be so amused with yourself.
That is way too much money for that rediculous painting.
I love Banksy. Genius. But I think the irony isn't that Brangelina bought it, it's that he's selling it; he's supposed to be a culture jammer, an anti-everything whateveryouwannacallit, and now he is, quite literally, selling out.
Saw the show... Banksy's artistic focus/work/ideas are more diverse than I anticipated. The show was amazing. It is Ironic that paintings that single out economic disparity was bought for a cool quarter of a million by hollywood a-listers.
My question was about his A-List opening that Thursday night in the city of angels. Isn't an A-list celebrity opening night against everything Bansky's work critiques??? I understand that the man needs to get paid... But when I first heard bansky was coming to LA - I thought that his opening would have been much more public. His ideas about turning graffiti into an accepted and pertinent social commentary would have been better incubated when blasted against the side of a freeway for a greater and more diverse audience to experience (say in traffic along the 101). Think about it... It could have created a completely new notion of public art in Los Angeles. A city very much in need.
We have public art or does spray paint count??