Finally, in 2018 in an auction organized by the Sotheby´s house, once a framed copy of the work was sold for more than a million pounds, the piece was intentionally shredded, as a result of a performance in which the author sought question the presence of art. As a consequence of its popularity, some reproductions of the work were embroiled in interesting controversies: Banksy carried out a variant in 2014 for a political campaign linked to refugees from Syria and in 2017 he design flyers with this image for the anti-conservative political campaign in the UK general election. This piece appeared on the stairs of the South Bank in London, and in 2017 a survey by the Samsung Company confirmed that the Girl with a Balloon is the most popular among the English. The first work attributed to Banksy is the mural depicting a girl releasing a red heart-shaped balloon (2002). After all, the myth of the person behind the urban murals has not impeded his positioning of the market: personalities like Christina Aguilera have bought his works at auctions, establishing new parameters in the valuation from the artist (in 2006 she bought the work Reina Victoria and two prints for 25,000 Euros). His artistic career can be interpreted as a fugitive from the law (some narratives speak of “Robin Banks” or “Robin Gunningham”). On the other hand, Banksy’s work is shrouded in mystery: the artist’s hidden identity has helped create different stories about his intentional anonymity. Wrapped amid scandals of plagiarism, Koons has managed to position itself within the market, winning various awards such as the Medal from the Museum of Fine Arts School (Boston, 2003), the Artist of the Year Award by the American Friends of the Aviv Museum of Art & Architecture Tel (United States, 2007), and Icon Artist of the Arts Award by Bruce Museum (Connecticut, 2011). In May 2019, he became the author of the most expensive work sold for a living artist: Rabbit reached a record price of $ 91.1 million. The image of the artist-businessman constitutes a character that, within global narratives, has determined the aspirational temperament of professional success. Jeff Koons has managed to transcend his work. To understand the way in which both artists contrast, here we develop some interesting points of their aesthetic proposals. Both approaches constitute paradigms in contemporary art, and their works have been part of the most important auctions. Instead, Banksy uses the appropriation of urban space and anonymity to pose a critique of society through murals and graffiti. Koons’ strategy is decisive: question consumer objects using sculptures and installations that in the museum space become consumable objects themselves. For the second one, aesthetic expression aims to criticize the political and institutional forms of society. Jeff Koons (Pennsylvania, 1955) and Banksy (Yate, Gloucestershire, 1974) are two referents of contemporary art, each with different and defined work processes : for the first one, art is a consequence of the market, closely linked with the forms of advertising and with the dynamics of consumption. In the art environment, some paths are drawn from opposite approaches.
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