A historical feud in the graffiti world
Around a decade ago, a feud occurred between the two famous English graffiti artists: King Robbo and Banksy. It’s interesting how there were an artistic outrage and notorious vengeance by both artists(and their fans) for vandalising another one’s graffiti, ironically which itself is a piece of vandalism. As graffiti is considered to be a criminal act in many countries and can end you up in prison for years, the graffiti artists are forced to keep their identities hidden lest they are caught. So both Banksy and King Robbo continued to work under their tag names while keeping their true identities anonymous.
King Robbo began his work with tagging the underground railways and spray painting canals, walls and tunnels too. His art was mainly about on-sight aesthetic beauty, he left his signature tag ‘Robbo’ in various styles and shades everywhere and believed in creating art in places it isn’t supposed to be. His works added colours to the otherwise dull surfaces that caught eyes of the common people on a regular basis. He seemed to be trying to break the monotonicity of the city life, by making people praise and stare at the trains and walls for a bit longer than they would otherwise. He carried on with his vandalism over years across London and then become dormant around the year 1985. Most of his graffiti works were either removed by the authorities or faded and became illegible due to overwriting, tagging and scribbling by the public down the decades. However, King Robbo tried switching to commercial art in the later years by pulling up a solo exhibition, which may be considered hypocritical as street artists favour making art accessible to all and not restricting it to exhibitions and in possession of the rich who can afford to buy it.
Banksy started off with his vandalism years after King Robbo was done with his. Banksy’s works are far different from Robbo’s, he is more concerned with using graffiti on the walls as weapons against whatever he feels is wrong in the system and society. His works aren’t beautiful compositions inviting praise on a look, but rather satirical statements forcing the onlookers to reflect upon their own actions and that of those in power. His artworks provide a different outlook and perspective to the common things by their exceptional way of representation. Thus Banksy converted the walls into mirrors which we had so easily draped and kept aside before. Apart from his amazing observation and sarcasm which may make him appear like a social activist, he seems to enjoy being a prankster, presenting all his works as jokes upon the world and its way of working.
The feud started when Banksy converted one of the oldest graffiti pieces by King Robbo into another piece of art which showed a worker peeling off the graffiti like an old wallpaper. It must have been Banksy’s depiction of the oblivion of King Robbo and his works over the years, thus announcing transience of name, fame and even art. Even though vandalising of graffiti over time is commonplace, this particular case got highlighted due to Banksy’s already attained popularity. Apparently, King Robbo took it as a personal insult and set out for a direct graffiti war with Banksy by vandalising his artworks. And thus King Robbo who seemed to be hibernating since years suddenly grew active with his spray cans, this way the feud simply highlighted and popularised both the artists even the more, as the public was enjoying the savage comebacks from the two.
Many other graffiti artists also believe that it was very wrong on Banksy’s part to paint over another artist’s work and that it was against the rules of graffiti. The blame game carries on even today, people seem to be taking sides to the extent of making judgements on the integrity and originality of the artists, which is despicable as both the artists stood out in their own work very differently and are incomparable. It can be considered just another example of people connecting themselves to names and tags(like the various religions) and blindly fighting in the name of the one they follow, while knowing nothing about the other one, neither about their own.
P.S.- King Robbo died in July 2014 after meeting a mysterious head injury which put him to coma and ultimately death.
