Doreen Tipton: Food banks, banks and Banksy

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a bit of banker-bashing myself – happy to oblige. But now it seems there’s a few new kids on the block.

Did you see the story last week about a Banksy painting that went up for auction at Sotheby’s? Seconds after the hammer went down, selling it for just over one million pounds, the painting started shredding itself in the specially-rigged frame.

It left the ones who weren’t in on the publicity stunt shocked and amazed, and it left those who were in on it looking like dodgy actors in a Superman movie (you know the sort – the street extras who speak with three exclamation marks: ‘Wow!!!’, ‘What’s happening!!!’ and ‘Look!!! The painting seems to be shredding!!!’

The fact that Banksy pulls off a clever publicity stunt is no real surprise, but what did strike me was how he can obviously afford to shred a million quid without a moment’s thought.

It seems that yesterday’s anti-establishment heroes are today’s establishment, with enough in the bank themselves to put wealthy bankers into relative poverty. And there are plenty of examples.

Take Kanye West for example, who I believe has just changed his name to Ye – presumably to save time. He belongs to a category of artistry known as Rappers, who I believe are traditionally supposed to be some kind of anti-establishment street warriors.

He recently advised his publicity-shy wife Kim not to publish a brand endorsement picture on Instagram, despite the fact that she was being offered a million dollars to do it. Yep – just to publish one picture. She took his advice, and he duly sent her a cheque for a million himself, as a little thank you. So I’m guessing that Kim and Ye won’t be attending the nearest Food Bank any time soon.

Billy Bragg, meanwhile, long time scourge of the political right, lives in a house in Dorset not dissimilar to JR Ewing’s oil-rich Dallas mansion, but just a bit bigger. So clearly there’s plenty of cash in preaching a convincing anti-capitalist message if you can set it to a catchy bit of folk guitar strumming. At least Kanye – sorry, Ye – makes no secret of his faith in the capitalist system, so he’s spared the label of hypocrite. It’s a tricky business, being a rich socialist. It’s dead simple when you’re poor. But when the system you’re trying to bring to its knees has given you personal fame, fortune or advantage, it presents you with a bit of a moral dilemma.

When your superior Grammar School education, for example, enables you to out-think and out-debate your opponents on BBC Question Time, as you argue for the abolition of Grammar Schools. When upgraded access to private hospital treatment is unthinkable, until the unthinkable privately happens to one of your family. Tough choices.

Anyway, back to the world of art – which, as we all know, is short for ‘artificial’. Black Fire 1 – a painting by an American bloke called Barnett Newman – sold for 84.2 million US dollars. It was basically just. . . well, black. A big canvas painted black. I suspect, though, that it wouldn’t have sold to anybody from the Black Country. We tend not to do pretentious twaddle.

Another one of Barnett’s masterpieces was ‘Anna’s Light’. That was also a big canvas, but this time, with an inventive stroke of genius, he painted it orange. Rather patchily. It could have done with a second coat. That fetched 105.7 million. But then again it was a bit brighter than Black Fire 1.

So forget the blokes in the bowler hats and pin-striped suits. It seems that art and rock and roll are the new establishment. Actually, a band called 10cc was quite popular in my youth. One of their songs went ‘Art for Art’s sake – money for God’s sake.’ Yep.

Tarra a bit. x