Selling Himself in Central Park: Banksy Does New York

In October 2013, as part of his New York “residency,” British street artist Banksy staged an art sale in Central Park. Here, unadvertised and unannounced, he sold original Banksy canvases for only $60 each. The second part of the performance took place the following day as Banksy, by way of his New York blog, publicized this already concluded event, reminding his audience that “it will not be there again today.” Underlining the apparent fragility of the event (“it will not be there again today”), he quite literally capitalizes on the valuable vulnerability of his work which most New Yorkers couldn’t help but miss. It was this apparently fleeting existence that was precisely the quality that many had thought might exclude performance (and, indeed, street art) from a kind of commodity-driven market. However, as Banksy’s latest interventions demonstrate, it is precisely this sense of ephemerality which gives the work its value. Crystallized into a kind of “just-missed” aesthetic, Banksy’s skyrocketing economic worth rests upon a longing for this kind of intangible affective work; a longing translated rather easily into dollars and cents.

In this article I explore the tensions between such apparently ephemeral work and a market so keen to acquire it, examining precisely how Banksy creates his place in the contemporary art and performance markets.