“This has nothing to do with me.”

                                             Not Banksy 

“Me neither.” 

             Andy Warhol

“Nor me!”

              Banksy

“Idiots!!”

              Marcel Duchamp                

NOT BANKSY
NOT WARHOL
NOT DUCHAMP
… a short history

In 1963 the young Banksy met graphic designer Andy Warhol when commissioning him to design the cover for his radical pro-consumerist book Lying, Cheating, Stealing and the Death of Art Vol 1 (Simone and Sheila Press, New York 1964).

It was during this first collaboration that Banksy gave Warhol the idea of using screen-printing to make multiples of paintings on an industrial scale whilst encouraging him to adopt the Neo-Nothingist Pop-Not-Art doctrine of “taking the inside and putting it on the outside and taking the outside and putting it on the inside for no obvious reason”. They also discussed at great length how “commercial art should be real Not-Art and how real art should be Not-commercial” with Banksy insisting (despite some resistance from the more highbrow Warhol) that the best Not-Art should be inane and simple enough to be “easily understood by any idiot”, made with as little effort as possible, and have enough hype to fool collectors into buying it no matter how rubbish it was. Warhol pushed for some level of integrity and cultural critique in the work and further argued that Not-Art should only be inflicted on the rich, whereas Banksy maintained allegiance to the ethos of “keeping it real for the people” by piling it high and selling it cheap. In the end they agreed to agree that they were both Not-Right.

From this starting point the two artists adopted the names Warhol Not Banksy and Banksy Not Warhol with the pair regularly collaborating until 1982 when Warhol Not Banksy suddenly dumped Banksy Not Warhol for BasquiNOT. This caused the devastated Banksy Not Warhol to abandon making screen-prints for the American Pop-Not-Art market and move to Bristol in the UK where he became a reclusive street artist known locally for his high level of integrity and spiritually focussed practice.

Back in 1963 there was also some controversy when ‘elderly statesman of Not-Art’ Marcel Duchamp caught wind of what the pair were up to and accused Warhol Not Banksy and Banksy Not Warhol of stealing his ideas. And, worse still, corrupting them by aestheticizing the everyday object/icon and making Not-Art likable - where Duchamp firmly believed it should remain unlikeable. To make his point Duchamp sent Warhol Not Banksy a thoroughly unlikeable portrait of the “thieving bastard” as an old man wearing a fright wig and cavalier moustache with the inscription H.H.A.H.A. (presumed to mean He Has A Hot Ass) and signed Manky Duchol. This both references Duchamp’s own détourned Mona Lisa postcard L.H.O.O.Q. (Trans. She Has a Hot Ass)(1919) and the fact he believed Warhol Not Banksy was in possession of stolen material.

By way of reply Warhol Not Banksy stated “good artists copy, genius artists like me steal” and then made the now infamous Art Is What You Can Get Away With series using his own quote, Banksy Not Warhol’s chimpanzee stencil and Duchamp’s wig.

On the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of Art Is What You Can Get Away With, Neo-Nothingist Anartist duo STOT21stCplanB in the guise of The WARHOL NOT BANKSY vs BANKSY NOT WARHOL Regeneration featuring Manky Duchol, have made facsimile copies of all the original 1960’s pieces and promoted the project by painting a massive mural at a secret location in London that also celebrates Banksy Not Warhol’s little known career as an obscure street artist.

This project was initiated with a sell-out Ltd Edition Print Drop in April this year and we now have the great honour of presenting this museum quality exhibition of the large scale screen-print paintings here at the Black Cube Gallery, Fish Island.

Visitors not admitted by appointment only.

NOTES

VIEWINGS

Visit www.STOT21.com

WORKS FOR SALE

All enquiries should be directed to www.L-13.org

CONTACT

All enquiries should be directed to The Administrator L-13@L-13.org

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Black Cube and the Anartists would like to thank the Lulu Vuitton Foundation and L-13 Light Industrial Workshop and Private Ladies and Gentlemen’s Club for Art, Leisure and the Disruptive Betterment of Culture whose continued support has made this project possible.

OPENING PARTY and General Admittance

The Black Cube does not entertain or admit general visitors. They are a distraction. By way of celebrating the opening of this exhibition a case of Stella will be left on Wick Lane, London E8 (courtesy of Lulu Vuitton) on Saturday 13th May at 6:30pm for anyone wishing to gather. The Anartists and gallery officials will not be in attendance.

WHAT IS AN ANARTIST?

An individual who fundamentally opposes all art but nonetheless maintains a creative practice despite themselves.

ABOUT NOT BANKSY

Founded in 2007, NOT BANKSY is an invention of Neo-Nothingist Anartist duo STOT21stCplanB. Initially created to cruelly mock the then emerging Urban Art Scene, the NOT BANKSY oeuvre has since become a lone critical voice in the good fight against all the machinations and evil ill-doings of the entire Art World whilst simultaneously cashing in for personal profit and self-aggrandisement.

Despite a very effective ’10 Years of Doing Absolutely Nothing’ (2009-2018) NOT BANKSY (under the various guises of NOT NOT BANKSY, The Real NOT BANKSY Front, THE INTERNATIONAL NEO NOT BANKSY ANARTIST ALLIANCE, The New NOT BANKSY Realisation, The Emergent IS-NOT BANKSY AbNormalcy of the 21st Century Generation Z, and now The WARHOL NOT BANKSY vs BANKSY NOT WARHOL Regeneration) has baffled, annoyed and delighted a dedicated Not-Art following with their constant stream of barely comprehensible nonsense with cheap but artfully produced (and occasionally funny) screen-prints and paintings that successfully re-write (and re-draw) the annals of Art History.

In 2021 they published their memoirs in The NOT BANKSY Book: Lying, Cheating, Stealing and the Death of Art Volume 13 and have since become moderately big in Japan with solo exhibitions in Osaka and Tokyo due later this year in association with the Not Banksy Do Nothing Again Department Store (NBDNAS.org).

Their work is held on a massive scale in countless private and public collections internationally and, despite everything, the future is looking bright and beautiful.

ABOUT STOT21stCplanB

STOT21stCplanB (aka STOT21) started out as a zero-ambition noise/alt country rock band, releasing the nihilistic CDR only LP Satan’s Rat Trap and the Mouse that Wound Up Dead (2004) and the flood/love/disaster inspired mini-LP Up To Yer Neck In It (2005), before turning their attentions towards visual art disruption.

Describing themselves as Neo-Nothingist Anartists, three years of intense creativity followed, exploring and dealing with notions of “the puerile” where the duo worked in a multiplicity of mediums from photo-montage, printmaking, painting, political campaigning, crockery and making fake Banksy’s under the name of Not Banksy.

In 2008 when their then gallery and collaborators THE AQUARIUM L-13 (predecessor to the L-13 Light Industrial Workshop) hosted a fundraising event for Ken Livingstone’s London mayoral campaign, STOT21stCplanB declared that they would stand against him and put forward their own candidate known only as THE ASSISTANT. Despite designing some fantastic campaign posters they failed to get to the first stage of the elections and in bitter disappointment declared their semi-retirement at the end of 2008.

They spent the next 13 years mostly painting landscapes and religious scenes of violence under the name Harry Adams, re-emerging occasionally for one-off projects and (due to popular demand) re-activating the Not Banksy project in 2018.

The rest will be history.