New Banksy Rat - London April 2011

Brand New Banksy - London April 2011

 

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Unique Banksy Street Art Rare Stencilled Safe (COA) E-Bay Now

PRICE AT TIME OF PRINT: £59,995 Number of Bids 15

E-Bay Description;


An extremely scarce piece of Banksy street art which has nevertheless been fully certified by Banksy's Gallery, Pictures on Walls (included is a Pest Control Certificate of Authenticity). This safe has an impeccable provenance. Not only does it appear photographed in Banksy's book 'Wall and Piece' on page 102, it was offered for sale by Christies as lot 180 in their sale in London on February 12th 2009. Early 2009 was about the bottom of the Banksy market, at time when UK Banks were nearing a precipice, and a general air of capitalist armageddon gripped the Square Mile. Unsurprisingly in that atmosphere the safe did not sell. The piece itself measures 25 by 18 by 19 inches and is executed as spray paint on an enamel and steel safe. The stencil used is one of Banksy's most distinctive early motifs, the rat with a parachute. The stencil has been arranged around the handle and combination wheel of the safe itself. The safe, dating probably from the 1970s, is currently locked and there is some damage to the outer surface of the safe - a number of scratches and chips. The stencil itself is in very good order. The central plastic covering of the combination wheel is missing, although this has been missing for some time, and was certainly lacking when it was offered at Christies. The combination wheel turns, and perhaps in the hands of the right cracksman might open. The safe comes from a friend of Banksy who writes 'To fill you in on me a bit. I have a tattoo studio in the West Country and prior to that I had a studio on Hackney Road, East London. It was there that I met and tattooed Banksy and he would pay me in prints. I also helped him out with his tattooed Venus sculpture that was in the crude oils show. I think because of this he gave me the safe as a thank you. I think also because of this two years later he must have approved the certificate for me when I tried to get it authenticated. 

A lot of people have contacted me with similar street pieces that they cannot get the paperwork for and thus not sell them. I was not intending to sell the safe but it is quite heavy and we have moved house twice already and it would make things a lot easier to move without it. Since living in Cornwall, nearly four years it has been on it's side in the spare bedroom. So it would be good for it to go to a good home where it will be appreciated'. Make no mistake this is a rare opportunity to buy a genuine piece of Banksy street art with full authentication. It is unique, so once it's sold, you won't see another. Please note this safe is extremely heavy and takes three people to lift it. Please contact us for estimates for delivery.

YOU CAN BID HERE

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Team Robbo - The Sell-Out Tour @ Signal Gallery London

8th April - 7th May 2011

Already a legend within the international graffiti community, London’s ‘King Robbo’ will soon lead his entire UK crew (known to the world as ‘Team Robbo’) into Signal Gallery for their first gallery show of the year.


Team Robbo is an intentionally amorphous and anonymous graffiti crew, which has now grown into The Team Robbo Network. Its presence stretches across the world, overseas members working in collaboration with their UK counterparts. 

Team Robbo UK will be represented in this show by core crew members: ROBBO, CHOCI-ROC, DOZE, FUEL, PRIME and P.I.C. – some of whom have worked together as a crew for around 25 years! 

They will be supported by the artist known as ‘Pranksky’, who provides coverage of Team Robbo’s continuing war with street artists via his media organization, Prank Sky Media. His work is described as hybrid art (merging art, photography and graffiti) providing a commentary on the ongoing art feud between street artists and graffiti writers that has received considerable media attention.

Several members of Team Robbo are already well-known to members of the street art/ graffiti community and to art collectors alike. This stemmed from several very successful shows last year, including Robbo's solo show at The Pure Evil Gallery plus Fuel & Prime's work in 'The Architects' Group Show at The Atom Rooms in London. Prime's controversial piece 'The Age of Shiva' was widely publicised when it appeared again last year in Pictures on Walls' show - 'Marks and Stencils' before Christmas.


The crew’s new show, ‘The Sell-Out Tour’ (which can be interpreted in a variety of ways), will be the first time that Team Robbo UK have exhibited in a gallery together. It will showcase an impressive variety of their work: prints, canvases, sculpture and photographic work. The photographs trace Team Robbo’s joint output, (both legal and illegal) over the years. They will be shown alongside new solo work where crew members push forward the graffiti genre and develop their own work in highly divergent and novel artistic directions. The show is expected to tour the world after the Signal Gallery launch.

The show offers a rare chance to both view and purchase original new works and prints by this notorious crew. All work shown is for sale. 

Quote by Robbo: “Nowadays nobody seems to care about talent anymore they’re just happy to be spoonfed shit, it’s like being stuck in X Factor.”

When
7th April: Private View and Press.
Writer's night (By invitation only).
8th April - 7th May: open to public.
 

Where
32 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4LB
www.signalgallery.com
Tel: 07766 057 212

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Banksy in Hollywood - February 2011

Brand new Banksy spotted in Hollywood last week... Our boy Banksy tends to blitz various spots during the early hours of any one morning. By the time we all wake up someone somewhere in the world has texted, twittered, facebooked, myspaced and Flickred before you can say 'is that a banksy?' Authorised Banksy networks declare the pieces are indeed the work of the man himself (or at the very least a team of little green helpers).

IMAGES COURTESY OF WOOSTER COLLECTIVE

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Identity of Banksy on EBay $US999,999

There's no denying that E-Bay features many interesting items to purchase some of which received worldwide attention. A user under the guise of 'Jaybuysthings' in the states recently offered the true identity of Banksy for sale on the network. What he offered was a piece of paper with the lads true name written or typed onto it.  Although we didn't get to see the bid it apparently reached  $US999,999 with Free Shipping Offered. The American informer said he'd tried selling the idenity before on EBay which was qucikly shutdown 'because I was selling something that was not tangible' he said 'It is now tangible,'

We found some quotes online from 'Jaybuysthings' original Item Desciptions;


"The Identity of 'Banksy'"


'If you win this auction I will mail you a piece of paper revealing the true identity of 'Banksy','


'I have uncovered his identity by matching up the prices of his sold pieces to corresponding tax records. I will reveal no more details.'


'The winner of this auction is the only person I will ever share this information with. The piece of paper will say his name, nothing more.'

'I give you 100% assurance that it is most certainly the full name of the street artist known as 'Banksy'.'

Read more:: ORIGINAL SOURCE

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Banksy Tags The Simpson's - Removed

Our man on the inside Banksy has recently been sanctioned by Hollywood studios, by this of course we're not speaking of the said studios near Dagenham, Essex, no we mean the proper Hollywood. Since Exit through the Gift Shop became a roaring success for Banksy and dare i say it 'Mr Brainwash' What it did show was that some things never change. Respected artists throughout the ages have employed the skills of others to construct their visions and why not, after-all for some its the idea, for others the texture, shape or form but does it really matter whether the artist makes the art themselves. This is something collectors will find out in the future and when they discover the work was created en-mass by an army of bionic helpers. Will the piece retain the same value as if the artist himself made the work or will the actual artist's piece be worth more purely because they did it. How many artists do you think are out there creating hundreds or in Brainwashes case thousands of art pieces for their shows? A tiny handful of artists have achieved this level of appreciation and globe attention. Banksy has put in the hardwork and now reaps rewards which no-one can take away from him.


Today the Simpson's Tomorrow Boondocks...

Philip Ignatious Salacious Stein (P.I.S.S.) presents PHILISTINES Thursday 7th October

Philip Ignatious Salacious Stein (P.I.S.S.) presents...PHILISTINES on Thursday 7th October (1st Thursday of each month thereafter.)

A NIGHT OF ART - AMBIENCE - MUSIC

After a very successful launch in September with photographers snapping away, celebrity and artist spottings (Philip Salon and Stik to name two) free drinks, brilliant vibe, great music....... Philip Ignatious Salacious Stein returns with his 2nd installment of Philistines on Thursday 7th October @ The Junction Rooms in Dalston.

Philip Ignatious Salacious Stein has been involved in the street art scene since 2001, collecting, selling and trading art. Over the years, he has developed strong relationships with artists including Ryka, Stik and David Walker.

PHILISTINES is a project and exhibtion which brings together street artists, collectors and lovers of art, ‘Philistines’ is a monthly event selling rare prints, canvases, originals and specially commissioned pieces at affordable prices. Over the next few months, ‘Philistines’ will be featuring a wide selection of pieces and commissions from more artists in a friendly venue with an eclectic DJ line up.

The Artist formerly known as AK-47 has moved into the field of 'Art Dealer' his brand new character named 'Philip Ignatious Salacious Stein' (P.I.S.S.) is an interesting character to say the least, he is someone you must meet and what better opportunity than his spanking new monthly showcases... PHILISTINES.. special events are more than just an art exhibition, it features some of P.I.S.S. personal collection including one off exclusives from AK-47 himself and other rare delights from the likes of: Micallef, Paul Insect, Ian Francis, David Walker, Stik, Banksy to name a few.... The art is very limited and numbered pieces holding certificate of provenance (guaranteed & genuine) and will be available to the general public for purchase at prices varying from below £100 upwards....

On the 1st Thursday of every month, you can expect at Philistines... many surprises including guest appearances and signings from the artists, lots of cool listening music (strictly no banging tunes) stimulating conversation and generally a good place to meet other like minded fans of the art underground scene.

Philistine;

a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits

of or relating to ancient Philistia or its culture or its people

a member of an Aegean people who settled ancient Philistia around the 12th century BC

anti-intellectual: smug and ignorant and indifferent or hostile to artistic and cultural values

‘Philistines’ takes place on the first Thursday of every month.

FREE ENTRY from 8 pm - 1 am
Thursday 7th October @ Junction Rooms.
Thursday 4th November (at a new venue tba)

PHILISTINES; A night of art, ambience and music
(1st Thursday of every month)
The Junction Rooms, 578 Kingsland Rd, Dalston. E8 4AH
8.00 pm – 1.00 am
FREE ENTRY

AK47 INTERVIEWED FOR LSD ISSUE 6

William Gibson - New Book Mentions Banksy and Hackney

If you enjoy science fiction then your already familiar with world renowned author William Gibson. The man whom created the term 'CyberPunk' and wrote a library of classic works within the genre. This isn't a review on the book it's posted purely because Banksy and Hackney are mentioned in Gibson's latest epic Zero History. One of the main characters pays a visit to Hackney and another character owns some Banksy works and adores the artist...Wayne nearly fell off his bike when he heard it on the ipod...                    

Here's the official trailer...





Another Clip...

Doco Banksy Tags Banksy

We had a overview of the film from the director of Doco Banksy in a past issue with regards to a secretive film he either found or was given or stole (not really). We haven't seen many of his ten pound note stickers lately and wondered what may have happened to the project now that Exit through the Gift Shop had gone global. An eagle eyed LSD reader living in Paris spotted the stickers on a poster and sent us the shots...

This is a clip from Doco-Banksy film...



DocoBANKSY5min241208
Uploaded by docoBANKSY. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

LSD Magazine mentioned in Hackney Gazette (re: arrested artists)

We recently blogged the news of artists getting arrested in Hackney Wick (see here) and was contacted by the boroughs leading newspaper The Hackney Gazette for any comments on the matter. It should be noted that this paper has actually covered a number of street art related topics over the past twelve months. Its usually Banksy that gets their pulses racing so its nice to see another angle for a change. Fairplay to the lads for covering this important matter. The officials could've at least fired a few warning shots before charging in and arresting creative types. The mentioned hotspot is off road and away from residential properties. The art found here is of a very high standard and the artists sell their works from £1 - £1 million...

Shepard Fairey (Obey) Interviews Banksy

From Swindle Magazine Issue 8 - Shepard Fairey phone interview of Banksy;

One of the most inappropriate nicknames of all time, at least in my opinion, belonged to Ronald Reagan: “The Great Communicator,” who we’ve come to learn did a pretty shitty job of communicating the government’s problems and indiscretions. A nickname like that deserves a more righteous, honest owner—someone like BANKSY.

Most people think of art as a way of conveying emotions, as opposed to language, the means by which we express ideas. Whatever line there is distinguishing art and language, BANKSY paints over it to make it disappear, then stealthily repaints it in the unlikeliness of places. His works, whether he puts them on the streets, sells them in galleries, or hangs them in museums on the sly, are filled with imagery tweaked into metaphors that cross all language barriers. The images are brilliant and funny, yet so simple and accessible that even children can find the meaning in them: even if six-year-olds don’t know the first thing about culture wars, they have no trouble recognizing that something is amiss when they see a picture of the Mona Lisa holding a rocket launcher. A lot of artists can be neurotic, self-indulgent snobs using art for their own catharsis, but BANKSY distances himself from his work, using art to plant the feelings of discontent and distrust of authority that anyone can experience when he prompts them to ask themselves one gigantic question: Why is this wrong? If it makes people feel and think, he’s accomplished his goal.

 

BANKSY’s work embodies everything I like about art and nothing I dislike about it. His art is accessible rather than elitist, since he does it on the street; it has a powerful political message that’s conveyed with a sense of humor, which certainly makes the bitter pill easier to swallow; it’s pleasing to look at, because it’s technically very strong but not overly complex and intimidating; and he pulls it off in such a way that its presence in its context communicates not only his message but his dedication to effecting the change he promotes in that message, whether he’s defying Israeli hegemony by painting the separation wall in Palestine or bypassing the elitist review board of a museum by hanging his work himself. He definitely has his share of critics, who say that he burns too many bridges by rejecting countless opportunities to gain money or fame, but he simply has no interest in doing anything that falls outside his goal of making provocative, powerful artwork. He’s a good friend and a tremendous source of inspiration; he’s The Great Communicator of our time, and the most important living artist in the world.

How long are you going to remain anonymous, working through the medium itself and through your agent as a voice for you?

B: I have no interest in ever coming out. I figure there are enough self-opinionated assholes trying to get their ugly little faces in front of you as it is. You ask a lot of kids today what they want to be when they grow up, and they say, “I want to be famous.” You ask them for what reason and they don’t know or care. I think Andy Warhol got it wrong: in the future, so many people are going to become famous that one day everybody will end up being anonymous for 15 minutes. I’m just trying to make the pictures look good; I’m not into trying to make myself look good. I’m not into fashion. The pictures generally look better than I do when we’re out on the street together. Plus, I obviously have issues with the cops. And besides, it’s a pretty safe bet that the reality of me would be a crushing disappointment to a couple of 15-year-old kids out there.

 What got you into graffiti? I know that you did more traditional graffiti at one point.

B: I come from a relatively small city in southern England. When I was about 10 years old, a kid called 3D was painting the streets hard. I think he’d been to New York and was the first to bring spray painting back to Bristol. I grew up seeing spray paint on the streets way before I ever saw it in a magazine or on a computer. 3D quit painting and formed the band Massive Attack, which may have been good for him but was a big loss for the city. Graffiti was the thing we all loved at school – we all did it on the bus on the way home from school. Everyone was doing it.

 

What’s your definition of the word “graffiti”?

B: I love graffiti. I love the word. Some people get hung up over it, but I think they’re fighting a losing battle. Graffiti equals amazing to me. Every other type of art compared to graffiti is a step down—no two ways about it. If you operate outside of graffiti, you operate at a lower level. Other art has less to offer people, it means less, and it’s weaker. I make normal paintings if I have ideas that are too complex or offensive to go out on the street, but if I ever stopped being a graffiti writer I would be gutted. It would feel like being a basket weaver rather than being a proper artist.

 Who are some of your favorite graffiti artists?

B: My favorite graffiti is done by people that aren’t in books. I’m really into the amateurs, the people who just come out of nowhere with a marker pen and write one funny thing for one night and then disappear.

 

“Street art” has been the cool buzzword, and artists have obtained instant credibility from these new fly-by-night galleries, skate companies wanting to do a new street art t-shirt series, whatever. All these people are picking artists that deserve to be picked and have really done work on the streets for 10 to 15 years, but then they also pick a lot of artists that have been doing something for four to six months and built themselves a nice little website. Where do you see yourself fit into that? If the pedestrians at these companies don’t really know who’s done what, how do you separate yourself from that?

B: Most graffiti writers arrive at a style by the need to work fast and quiet. If you arrived at a style by painstakingly drawing in your bedroom and touching up on Photoshop, then people can smell the difference from about five miles away.

 

How do you decide what commercial projects to work on?

B: I’ve done a few things to pay the bills, and I did the Blur album. It was a good record and it was quite a lot of money. I think that’s a really important distinction to make. If it’s something you actually believe in, doing something commercial doesn’t turn it to shit just because it’s commercial. Otherwise you’ve got to be a socialist rejecting capitalism altogether, because the idea that you can marry a quality product with a quality visual and be a part of that even though it’s capitalistic is sometimes a contradiction you can’t live with. But sometimes it’s perfectly symbiotic, like the Blur situation.

 

I’m sure you get offered jobs left and right. Are there things that you think about doing that you don’t do, or things that you wish you would’ve done?

B: I don’t do anything for anybody anymore, and I will never do a commercial job again. In some ways it’s a shame, cuz I’m sure I’d have had a good time doing posters for that frozen yogurt company in Hawaii and now I’d have friends I could go visit on the other side of the world. But it’s part of the job to shut the fuck up and not meet people. I never go to the openings of my shows, and I don’t read chat rooms or go on MySpace. All I know about what people think of my gear is what a couple of my friends tell me, and one of them always wants to borrow money, so I’m not sure how reliable he is.

I think there’s a lot to be said for the fine line between secondguessing yourself and respecting a dialogue with people whose opinions you trust, or even people that are great because they don’t know shit about art and you get the most honest reaction from them. Because so many artists, they worry about what trends are happening in art and design and street art, they read too many magazines, and they are too wrapped up in everything; they’re paralyzed.

 

What’s the most perfect non-traditional piece of art that you’ve seen that’s not currently hanging in a museum?

B: The most perfect piece of art I saw in recent times was during an anarchist demonstration in London a couple of years ago. Someone cut a strip of turf from the grass in front of Big Ben and put it on the head of the statue of Winston Churchill. Later, the demo turned into a riot, and photos of Winston with a grass Mohican were on the cover of every single British newspaper the next day. It was the most amazing bit of vandalism, because it was the perfect logo for this eco-punk movement that was trying to reclaim the streets, bring an end to global capitalism, and defend the right to sit in a park all day getting wasted on discount lager.

 Your art is still free on the streets but costly in the galleries. What dictates that?

B: What I find is I don’t have much say in what things cost. Every time I sell things at a discount rate, most people put them on eBay and make more money than I charged them in the first place. The novelty with that soon wears off.

 You were talking about how you want your books to be cheap because they show the work in the context of the street, as well as the installations in museums and other pranks, which are actually honest representations of your work. But then people want objects, so they’re going to want the canvases and things like that, and you’re just kind of accepting that people fetishize objects and are willing to pay a lot for the status of owning something that they can hang up.

B: I stenciled the door of an electrical block in south London and recently someone sawed it off and sold it at a famous auction house for £24,000, but in that same week Islington council power sprayed off eight of my new stencils on one road. What I’m finding is art is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it, or willing to pay to not have to look at it.

 The redistribution of the wealth then allows you to have that freedom to put work on the street without the pressure of having to sell a thousand cheap canvases – work that’s free and accessible. It really means that the art objects, the canvases, only really play into the people that think in an elitist way and have the money. So really, it kind of balances out. That’s an issue that a lot of artists have. They believe that their work should be accessible to a lot of people, and that actually is the opposite of the way the art world works.

B: The art world is the biggest joke going. It’s a rest home for the overprivileged, the pretentious, and the weak. And modern art is a disgrace – never have so many people used so much stuff and taken so long to say so little. Still, the plus side is it’s probably the easiest business in the world to walk into with no talent and make a few bucks.

 The murals you did in Palestine, I would assume, involved personal risk. You’re there, and you could definitely get some people pissed off and put yourself in jeopardy.

B: Every graffiti writer should go there. They’re building the biggest wall in the world. I painted on the Palestinian side, and a lot of them weren’t sure about what I was doing. They didn’t understand why I wasn’t just writing “down with Israel” in big letters and painting pictures of the Israeli prime minister hanging from a rope. And maybe they had a point. The guy that I stayed with got five days with the “dirty bag” for waving a Palestinian flag out a window. The dirty bag is when Israeli security services get a sack, wipe their shit on it, and put the bag over your head while your hands are tied behind your back. I spat out my falafel as he was explaining that to me, but he just goes, “That’s nothing. My cousin got it for two weeks without a break.” It’s difficult to come home and hear people complaining about reruns on TV after that. It’s very hard for the locals to paint illegally over there. We certainly weren’t doing it under the cloak of darkness; you’d get shot. We were out in the middle of the day, making it very clear we were tourists. Twice, we had serious trouble with the army, but one time the Palestinian border patrol pulled up in an armored truck. The Israeli government makes a big fuss about how they own the wall, despite building it right through the farmland of Palestinians who have been there for generations, so the Palestinian border police don’t give a shit if you paint it or not. They parked between the road and us, gave us water, and just watched. It’s probably the only time I’m ever going to paint whilst being covered by a cop from a roof-mounted submachine gun.

Did they realize that it favored the Palestinian perspective?

B: I have sympathy for both sides in that conflict, and I did receive quite a bit of support from regular Israelis, but if the Israeli government had known we were going over there to do a sustained painting attack on their wall, there’s no way that we’d have been tolerated. They’re very paranoid. They don’t want the wall to be an issue in the West. On the Israeli side of the wall they bank it up with soil and plant flowers so you don’t even know its there. On the Palestinian side it’s just a fucking huge mass of concrete.

 You’ve never really been busted to the point of potentially not being able to do street art, but that’s always a possibility. I could be wrong – you could be incredible and never get caught, but everybody gets caught at some point. What would you do if you were put in that position? Would you rent walls? Would you try to find legal walls? Would you still try to find ways to have work on the street and still maintain your anonymity to a degree, but keep it out there through more legal means? Would you move to another country? What would you do?

B: I’m always trying to move on. You’re not supposed to get dumber as you get older. You’re not supposed to just do the same old thing. You’re supposed to find a new way through and carry on. I invest back into the street bombing from selling shit. Recently, I’ve been pretending to be a construction manager and paying cash to get scaffolding put up against buildings, then I cover the scaffolding with plastic sheeting and stand behind it making large paintings in the middle of the city. I could never have done that a few years ago. Plus, I’m always interested in finding new places to hit up; it’s easier to break into zoos and museums than train lay-ups, because they haven’t had so much of a graffiti problem in the past. Ultimately, I just want to make the right piece at the right time in the right place. Anything that stands in the way of achieving that piece is the enemy, whether it’s your mum, the cops, someone telling you that you sold out, or someone saying, “Let’s just stay in tonight and get pizza.”

From Swindle Magazine

New Banksy in Toronto?

Three new pieces in Banksy's distinctive style have popped up on walls in Toronto over the past two days: one's near Trinity Bellwoods Park, another's near Union Station, and a final one's around the Rogers Centre. (We've been asked to keep the exact locations private, lest "bad intentions" lead to them being chipped away and sold.)

Banksy Film Red Carpet @Leake Street

I noticed some tweets going round the globe speaking of our man's Banksy film Through the Gift Shop on show at Leake Street...I was there last week and took some snaps...

Full Photo Session in LSD (London Street-Art Design) Magazine Issue 4 Coming Soon

GET PAST ISSUES / NEW ISSUES HERE

Banksy v Robbo Article

LONDON—In the predawn hours of Christmas morning, a 40-year-old shoe repairman who goes by the name Robbo squeezed his 6-foot-8-inch frame into a wet suit, tossed some spray cans into a plastic bag, and crossed Regent's Canal on a red-and-blue air mattress.

Robbo, one of the lost pioneers of London's 1980s graffiti scene, was emerging from a long retirement. He had a mission: to settle a score with the world-famous street artist Banksy, who, Robbo believes, had attacked his legacy.

The battle centers on a wall under a bridge on the canal in London's Camden district. In the fall of 1985—just 15 years old but already a major player in London's graffiti scene—Robbo announced his presence on that wall with eight tall block letters: ROBBO INC.

The work, written in orange, red and black on a yellow background, had been in good shape for nearly 25 years and was considered a local icon, surviving long after Robbo himself vanished from the scene 16 years ago.

But recently, Robbo's work was dramatically altered by an unlikely rival: Banksy, the stealthy Bristol-born artist who has made a lucrative art of graffiti. The work of Banksy—who, like Robbo, doesn't disclose his name—sells for big money and is widely merchandised. His first film, "Exit Through the Gift Shop," had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is due out in U.K. theaters this month.

In early December, Banksy did a series of four pieces along the Regent's Canal's walls. Inexplicably, one of them incorporated Robbo's piece into Banksy's own work, painting over half the Robbo original in the process. The resulting work, in Banksy's typical stencil technique, shows a black-and-white workman applying colorful wallpaper that is, in essence, the remnants of Robbo's piece.

Some saw Banksy's act as self-promotion, some as a tribute, but most interpreted it as plain disrespect for a local hero. Offers of retribution reached Robbo, who has remained friendly with many graffiti writers even as he slipped into a life of obscurity as a North London father of two children, with a third on the way.

"They was all offering to do it for me," says Robbo in an interview. But he decided: "I've got to do it myself."

So on Christmas morning—praying he wouldn't wind up in jail even as his children were opening their presents—Robbo slipped back onto the canal and reclaimed his turf. Instead of applying wallpaper, Banksy's workman now is seen painting two words: KING ROBBO.

The game didn't end there. Robbo in recent weeks has modified all four Banksys along Regent's Canal, signing them "Team Robbo." Other graffiti writers have shown their support by adopting the "Team Robbo" tag for their own works.

"Graffiti writers are Team Robbo, street artists are Team Banksy," says Robbo, his heavy cockney accent and shaved head reminders of graffiti's past when skinheads and punks battled to mark their territory with names and slogans.

Banksy declined to be interviewed but provided a statement through a spokeswoman.

"I didn't paint over a 'Robbo' piece. I painted over a piece that said 'mrphfgdfrhdgf'," he said. "I find it surreal when graffiti writers get possessive over certain locations. I thought that having a casual attitude towards property ownership was an essential part of being a vandal."

The battle between lost legend and acclaimed artist highlights a larger rift in the art world. On one side are old-school graffiti writers who "tag" or "bomb" their names in as many places as possible and seldom, if ever, seek compensation for their work.

On the other are street artists, who aim for a political or cultural resonance and also create portable pieces they can exhibit and sell. Their prototype is Banksy, who exists in the art world as both renegade and establishment darling.

The tension between the camps is about more than money and fame. With the exception of a few designated places, painting graffiti on private or public property is illegal. Graffiti writers, whose freehand, spray-painted work can take hours to produce, are more likely to be caught than street artists who often use stencils and posters to get in and out more quickly.

"It's so easy for them to do some of their stuff," says David Samuel, a London graffiti artist who, through his agency, RareKind, promotes fellow writers by putting on shows and linking them up with paid work.

Robbo emerged from London's working-class districts, a teenage skinhead and football hooligan who had more than a few run-ins with the law.

"It started out with spray paint, a black marker and no style," he says. "It was just statements: Skinheads! Arsenal! Robbo!"

It took until the early '80s and films like "Beat Street" and "Style Wars" for Robbo and his crew to find out about the nascent graffiti movement in places like New York. Soon the American style began to influence their own works and they started hitting trains and buildings across London.

"He was the first real all-city writer," Mr. Samuel says of Robbo.

In the early '90s, however, painting in London's underground system became more dangerous as police were on high alert for terrorist activity. Robbo, by then a young father, was ready to get out.

"I had achieved what could be achieved," he says. "I was quite happy to take the back seat and live another life."

A few years later, Robbo says he encountered Banksy, who was just surfacing, in an East London bar. After a fellow graffiti writer introduced them, Robbo says that Banksy replied, "I've never heard of you." Robbo says he cuffed Banksy in the face, sending his glasses flying.

"You may not have heard of me, but you will never forget me," Robbo says he told Banksy. The two haven't spoken since. Banksy declined to comment on the incident.

In the years since, Banksy has become a sensation. He has published five books, painted all over the world, and in February 2008, his 2007 work "Keep it Spotless" sold for $1.87 million at a Sotheby's charity event in New York.

Robbo has never sold a single piece of art. But as he's drawn back into the limelight, he's getting curious. On a recent Friday evening, he and a friend attended a contemporary-art auction at London's sleek Phillips de Pury & Co., where a Banksy was on the block alongside two Basquiats and a Warhol.

Banksy's "Vandalised oil #001," which was exhibited in London's Cargo nightclub in 2001, sold for £121,250.

Arriving late—his shoe-repair store doesn't close until 7 p.m.—Robbo made his way through the gallery, wearing a gray hoodie and sweat pants, black shoe polish still staining his hands. A security guard was quickly on his tail.

"It's all right, mate, we're artists," he said, towering over the guard.

As he watched the auction, he mused about his own past and future. "I'd love to have seen my own stuff in something like this," he said.

Mr. Samuel has asked Robbo to do his own show later this year, and, with a family to support and the thrill of his recent outings still fresh, Robbo is tempted.

"I've done everything, everything for nothing," says Robbo. "I don't think anyone would knock me for making money out of it. But it's never been my goal to make money out of something I love."

Article by Gabriele Stienhauser (Wall Street Journal)