Art critic Tabish Khan on Street Art as Fine Art

 

Art critic, Londonist columnist and on the panel of judges for the Secret Art Prize , Tabish Khan @LondonArtCritic , tells us in the first of two blogs, just how Street Art has become Fine Art.

Soldiers Binge by Nathan Bowen

 

Is Street Art Fine Art?

 

Once Marcel Duchamp placed a urinal in a gallery and claimed it to be a work of art, the concept of what constitutes art was blown out of the water and centuries old boundaries in the world of art were torn down. As Grayson Perry so eloquently put it, in his recent Reith lectures, art has reached its end state because anything can be art.

 

So surely in this wonderful world of art equality there are no limits to what constitutes fine art? You would think so but there are many who still believe that not all types of art are created equal. There is a view that painting, drawing and sculpture are the highest forms of art; then photography followed by video art; with street art at the bottom of the pile – just above functional crafts such as embroidery and knitting.

 

Some readers may look at the list above and note that there is a definite chronological order to this ranking and maybe it’s just old men in the art industry holding on to past traditions. But is there a legitimate reason for street art to be so far down the list? Does it not deserve to be held up there with painting? And what defines whether a work should be considered fine art?

 

These are the questions I’ll attempt to answer in this short essay and provide some thoughts of my own into why I think this is a question with no easy answer.

Taxiderny: Stag by D.S

What is street art?

 

This may seem like a stupid question with an easy answer – if it’s on the street, it’s street art. But does this mean that if you transfer some graffiti into a gallery it becomes fine art, or if the Mona Lisa were placed on a street corner it would become street art? Of course not!

 

Many works of street art may be found in galleries today and even the Manchester Art Gallery has a Banksy hung amongst its classical works. Some galleries such as Imitate Modern, Opera Gallery and Curious Duke feature artists with a street art feel to them and there’s no question that some of these works sell for a lot of money. 

 

This has led to the creation of the term urban art as it reflects that it’s no longer confined to the streets and some artists actually create a different style of work to be sold in galleries – examples include Shepard Fairey and Mr. Brainwash.

 

We know that street or urban art can sell for sizeable sums of money and that it may be hung in galleries so is there anything that separates it from other types of art?

 

The one obvious differentiator would be the materials used, notably stencils and spray paints. But even these are starting to be used by more traditional painters and the lines will continue to blur. We are in an age where it’s still possible to spot street art even if it’s hung in a gallery but with contemporary pop art encroaching on its territory it’s becoming harder to tell the difference.  

 

Not that it matters to artists. They are creative individuals whose outputs aren’t designed to have labels attached. Claude Monet didn’t paint one of his water lily pieces and claim it to be a wonderful piece of Impressionist art. It was only afterwards that each genre of art got its title, largely because academics and curators like to apply labels so that they can neatly categorise art.

This leads us to a conclusion that ‘fine art’ is not easily defined and just a title placed on works by collectors, curators and the like to assign value to a particular piece. So why is there such a firm desire to keep street art separate from so called fine art?

 

 

Don't forget to tune in next week for part II!

 

Thanks Tabish!

 

 Written by Curious Duke Gallery blogger Sinéad Loftus.

Lover of all art and fluffy cats.