Mr. Brainwash

Mr. Brainwash (often written MBW) is a name used by French-born, Los Angeles-based filmmaker and street artist Thierry Guetta. According to the 2010 Banksy-directed film Exit Through the Gift Shop, Guetta was a proprietor of a used clothing store, where he began as a security guard, and amateur videographer who was first introduced to street art by his cousin, the street artist Invader, and who filmed street artists through the 2000s and "evolved" into an artist in his own right in a matter of weeks after an off-hand suggestion from Banksy.

A number of critics have observed that his works strongly emulate the styles and concepts of Banksy, and have speculated that Guetta is an elaborate prank staged by Banksy, who may have created the works himself. Banksy insists on his official website, however, that Exit Through the Gift Shop is authentic and that Guetta is not part of a prank.^[1]

His work sold for five-figure sums at his self-financed debut exhibit Life is Beautiful, due, it is thought, to a mixture of an over heated and hyped street art market and – according to Banksy and Shepard Fairey as seen in Exit – his misuse of endorsements from Banksy and Fairey. The exhibit was held in Los Angeles, California, on June 18, 2008, and was a popular^[2] and critical success. In 2009, Madonna paid Guetta to design the cover art for her Celebration album.^[3]

In October 2013 Guetta took part in Art Wars at the Saatchi Gallery curated by Ben Moore. Guetta was issued with a stormtrooper helmet, which he transformed into a work of art. Proceeds went to the Missing Tom Fund set up by Ben Moore to find his brother Tom who has been missing for over ten years. The work was also shown on the Regents Park platform as part of Art Below Regents Park.

Art and exhibitions

Guetta's uniformly subversive style fuses historic pop imagery and contemporary cultural iconography to create his version of a pop–graffiti art hybrid first popularized by other street artists . Working primarily with layers of screenprint and stenciled images, his compositions are emblematic of a graffiti wall inundated with 20th century iconography. He is both sly and playful in his juxtaposition of the cultural idols of the past (Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe) with the icons of today (Kate Moss, Madonna). The vibrant palette and imitation of pop artists like Andy Warhol and Keith Haring add a puckish wink. To add to his intentionally derivative persona, Guetta uses a special signature and authentication on all of his artworks. All unique MBW artworks have his mantra "Life is Beautiful", his thumbprint, hand-signature, and assigned dollar bill number sequence.

Life is Beautiful

Mr. Brainwash’s first solo show, Life is Beautiful, opened in the summer of 2008, in a former T.V. studio in Hollywood. The show garnered the cover of LA Weekly, one of Los Angeles’most circulated publications. Life is Beautiful attracting thousands of people who lined the streets for blocks. Featuring a 20 foot robot, a pyramid made of 20,000 books and a lifesize recreation of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks,” Life is Beautiful extended for three months, attracting a total of 50,000 visitors.^[4]

Life is Beautiful: Icons

On February 14, 2010, Guetta opened his second show in New York City.^[5] The show Life is Beautiful: Icons covered 15,000 square feet (1,400 m²) of an abandoned warehouse in the Meat Packing District to create a gallery. According to Anthony Haden-Guest, a portrait of Jim Morrison made of broken vinyl records in a simplistic version of the style of mosaicist Ed Chapman was sold for $100,000.^[6] Massive cans were created for the show, ranging in size from 4 ft (1.2 m) to 12 ft (3.7 m) and are now embodied as prints in a series.^[7]

Opera Gallery London

On October 6, 2011 Guetta opened a solo exhibition at Opera Gallery in London. The previous night the street outside the gallery was sprayed with paint by RSH as a statement about the false nature of Mr Brainwash's artwork.^[8] When asked about this, Mr Brainwash declared that he actually really liked the street thus spray painted and that as long as he stirred reactions from the public / other artists he judged it a success. The exhibition sold out within two days, with one private collector buying 14 of the 36 artworks on display.

Toronto Film Festival

Mr. Brainwash made his Canadian debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011, by placing installations all over the city. They included his signature 8-foot tall spray can sculptures, each one a different film genre, and lifesize Canadian Mounties cutouts, armed with boom mics and cameras. Portrait of Grace Kelly. Google MBW, Grace Kelly (HuffPo Article). MBW Will be participating in multiple events and a collaboration about the festival exhibit with Grace Kelly.^[9]

2012 Olympic Games in London

In 2012, during the Summer Olympics in London, Mr. Brainwash made his second show in the UK in The Old Sorting Office, a colossal space, steps from the British Museum. Works a 6 story tall Queen Elizabeth II, in her coronation attire, holding a Union Jack spray can, “God Save the People.” Giant bucket of beans a tall gorilla (12 ft?). 20 ft tall Kate Moss on the front of the building. The also did the Olympic rings in paint buckets. David Guetta played the opening. Life-size taxi cab in Match-Box and phone in a box.^[10]

Art Basel

At Art Basel in Miami, in 2010, without any announcement or notice, Mr. Brainwash took over a 25,000 square foot building in South Beach with a colorful art spectacle entitled, "Life is Beautiful: Under Construction." ^[11]

In 2011, Mr. Brainwash headed back to Miami for Art Basel with a new show, Life is Beautiful: Untitled. Occupying the same South Beach space, he constructed of fiberglass sculptures and mixed media canvases.^[12]

Mr. Brainwash returned to Art Basel in 2013, taking up residency in Gale South Beach on Collins Avenue. This show included large scale oil paintings and sculpture, including a 3 story tall Mona Lisa with a Mohawk.^[13]

Life is Beautiful: Art Show 2011

Taking over an 80,000 square foot building in the center of the city, Mr. Brainwash also gave artists the opportunity to be a part of this show. For the exhibition, he donated over 20,000 square feet of space to showcase donated works from around the globe.^[14] Google chose this space it unveil their Google Music platform on November 11, 2011.^[15] The event featured performances by Busta Rhymes, Drake, and Maroon 5.^[16]

September 11 Mural, 2014

Mr. Brainwash created a huge mural in honor of 9/11, which was located on the side of Century 21 (on Church between Dey Street and Cortlandt Street) across from the WTC site.^[17]

September 11 Mural, 2015

In 2015, Mr. Brainwash returned to New York City to create another mural in remembrance of September 11. The 65-by-225-foot mural on the wall of the Century 21 department store in Lower Manhattan commemorates those affected by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.^[18]

Music collaborations

In 2009, when Madonna was set to release her greatest hits compilation, “Celebration,” she asked Mr. Brainwash to design the cover. He designed 15 different covers for the wide release, singles, DVDs and special edition vinyl.^[19] Mr. Brainwash also collaborated with Madonna for her Hard Candy Fitness in Toronto. The Hard Candy Fitness opening featured the live onsite creation of an 11 by 30 foot Madonna mural, designed by Mr. Brainwash.^[20]

For the National Election, Mr. Brainwashed designed key art for “Rock the Vote,” a national campaign reminding the youth about the importance of voting and the power of democracy.^[21]

Brainwash designed artwork for Michael Jackson’s, “Xscape.” Michael Jackson was a longtime friend of Thierry's and was one of the first people to purchase art from him.^[22] Mr Brainwash also designed a digital cover to commemorate this posthumous release.

In early June 2011, cryptic artwork of a robot and the Red Hot Chili Peppers logo with the date 8/30/11 was posted around Los Angeles. The band's management denied that the works were connected with the band; however on July 14, 2011, TMZ reported that the artwork was by Mr Brainwash and part of the official promotion for the Chili Peppers' I'm with You album.^[23]

Mr. Brainwash directed a video for “Divine Sorrow,” by Wyclef Jean, featuring Avicii for CocaCola and the (RED) campaign, which aims to raise awareness and money for the Global Fund's efforts to virtually eliminate mother to child transmission of HIV.^[24]

In 2013, in collaboration with the Hard Rock Hotel, Mr. Brainwash did art installations for the Coachella Festival.^[25]

In 2014, Mr Brainwash was a part of Rita Ora’s live musical performances on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.^[26]

Mr. Brainwash collaborated with MercedesBenz for The Evolution Tour, 8 intimate concert experiences, across the country featuring artists such as Alabama Shakes and Mayer Hawthorne. At each stop of the Evolution Tour, Mr. Brainwash created a one-of-a-kind MercedesBenz 2015 GLA.^[27]

Fashion collaborations

In December 2014, Mr. Brainwash created an installation for the opening of Hublot’s Bal Harbor Boutique in Miami during Miami Art Week, wrapping the entire facade with his work but also intervening on presentation stands inside the boutique and even creating a oneofakind Hublot timepiece with a presentation box.^[28]

Spring of 2015, Mr. Brainwash helped launch Sunglass Hut’s Signature Artists Series with a limited edition, oneofakind run of Aviator and Wayfarer sunglasses by Ray Ban.^[29]

Publicity and sales

At commercial auction

Mr Brainwash made his major auction debut on May 14, 2010 at Phillips. The piece, a massive canvas, was given a pre-auction estimate of $50,000–70,000. It showed a Charlie Chaplin character with paint can and roller in hand. The background of the work was adorned with the artist's Madonna and Heart image, set in an urban/street environment.^[30]

The London Fall 2010 Phillips Contemporary Art Sale was Brainwash's second appearance in auction, this time with two works, described as spray and metallic paint, acrylic and paper collage on canvas.^[31] The smaller of the two measures 106.7 x 106.7 cm (42 x 42 inches) and shows Kate Moss amongst heavy brush strokes and splatters of red, pink, and white paint all amongst a gold background. The larger one, measuring 162.6 x 121.9 cm (64 x 48 inches), shows Albert Einstein in front of a graffiti adorned wall. The works sold for about $67,000 and $120,000, almost three times their estimates.^[32]

Copyright infringement lawsuit

Guetta has been sued by Glen E. Friedman over Guetta's use of his photo of rap group Run DMC.^[33]

A Day in the Life

An episode of the Morgan Spurlock-produced documentary series A Day in the Life follows Guetta for a day. He is shown preparing for a large Los Angeles show. In the episode he reveals that all of his work since his 2008 debut has been completed with a team of graphic designers.

Speculation and theories

Since the release of the film Exit Through The Gift Shop, there has been much speculation that the film and story of Mr. Brainwash are a hoax concocted by Banksy and Shepard Fairey themselves. When Guetta is shown "working", he is only seen splattering paint using aerosol cans to haphazardly color images and clumsily attempting to paste up a poster. Other aspects of the Mr. Brainwash character seem deliberately comical, such as his being pushed in a wheelbarrow after supposedly breaking his foot.

The Times noted that "The blogs buzzed with rumours: that Mr Brainwash is nothing but a front for Banksy; even that he is Banksy."^[34] Fast Company concludes that "The whole thing, it's clear now, was an intricate prank being pulled on all of us by Banksy, who has never publicly revealed his identity, with Fairey as his accomplice. ... [His work] looks like Banksy trying not to look like Banksy..."^[35]

Some suggest that Fairey and Banksy have been artificially inflating the sales of Mr. Brainwash's work. According to Rebecca Cannon, Mr. Brainwash's work hasn't sold as well on independent forums:

With both shows held outside of commercial galleries, no professional dealers have had their reputation on the line in making fake claims of high sales. However, if Guetta is a hoax, there also exists the possibility that these artworks are actually produced by Banksy himself, in a style deliberately intended to suggest inferior artistic skill.^[36]

As the movie opened in North America, in April 2010, The Boston Globe movie reviewer Ty Burr found it to be quite entertaining as a farce and awarded it four stars. He dismissed the notion of the film being a "put on" saying "I’m not buying it; for one thing, this story’s too good, too weirdly rich, to be made up. For another, the movie’s gently amused scorn lands on everyone."^[6][37]

The artshow "Life Is Beautiful" depicted in the movie did occur,^[38] which implies that if this is a hoax the character of Thierry Guetta has existed since at least June 2008. A trailer for his movie, Life Remote Control, has been on YouTube since 2006. This suggests that, at the very least, genuine details of Guetta's life have been woven into the narrative.

An LA Times investigation found "[the] details of Guetta's unlikely biography are broadly supported by a review of public records, which trace his life in Los Angeles from his arrival as a teenager in the early 1980s. They are also consistent with the accounts of friends, former business associates and employees over those years."^[39] Friends the Times interviewed confirmed the film's story that Guetta was constantly filming and several notarized documents prove that he hired someone to assist with the construction of his film Life Remote Control.

However, it also adds that "it is impossible to prove whether his latest incarnation, Mr. Brainwash, is sincere. The film suggests that Guetta's artistic alter ego is largely a creation of Banksy, a notion Guetta doesn't refute." Guetta told the paper: "In the end, I became [Banksy's] biggest work of art."^[39]

Real estate

It was revealed in December 2014 that Guetta owns extensive Los Angeles real estate in a trust with his wife. It is believed that this real estate has financed his art exhibits.^[40]

References

External links

• Official website
• Mr. Brainwash at the Internet Movie Database
• Jackson, Candace; Schuker, Lauren A. E., "Mr. Brainwash: For Real?", The Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2010.
• Jean-David Malat LUX-Mag – Is Mr Brainwash Real?