A COMPARISON OF BANKSY AND JEFF KOONS

A comparison of the two artists Banksy and Jeff Koons can serve as a good illustration of the way art has changed from the 1980s to now. Both artists have employed prankster personalities to uphold sentimental art based on images. Beyond these pranks and images lies information about a society’s morals and values. The differences in their art are massive with Banksy’s British internet artistic images and Koons’s New York 1980s art.

While Koons was advertising his art, he made it part of his strategy to promote himself too. In his advertisements, Banksy remains unidentified and vague. While both artists are media savvy, they use the media for different reasons and differently too. Koons’ overexposure and accessibility has been replaced by Banksy’s mystery. The difference could partly be attributed to the media of the two different eras. While Koons made his impact by advertising on TV and magazines, Banksy has exploited the anonymity of the internet to create a following.

Both artists have had a lot of controversy with Koons getting involved in plagiarism claims and Banksy getting involved in claims of vandalism owing to street art. They are however both accepted as artists of their own ages. They have only tended to use different means to express themselves.

The works of the two artists is however similar in some ways. The two artists are famous for making art that is based on animals such as the parachuting rat, and elephant in a room by Banksy and the pet chimpanzee and the balloon dog by Koons. While the contexts in which the two artists work are diverse, they both have a wild following which buys their art. Both artists have also been known to have arts which vary in prices from cheap to very expensive.