When life gives you graffiti, make money

Last week, graffiti “artist” Kidult painted the word ART in pink paint all over the Marc Jacobs store in Soho. The store’s staff cleaned it up, but not before snapping a photo of it and dubbing it Art by Art Jacobs. And then, in an awesome twist, Marc Jacobs put the photo on a tshirt and offered it for sale: $689 or $9 less if you want it signed by the “artist”. The Observer’s Foster Kamer has the story.

Jacobs, in this situation, has made one hell of a commentary about the absurd commoditization that some street art has yielded, and how easily ostensibly subversive art can actually be subverted, facile as it so often is, and it may be the best take on the matter since Exit Through The Gift Shop.

I’m going to pay for those quotation marks with lots of email and tweets, aren’t I?

Update: Kidult has answered back with a tshirt of his own that pictures the “artist” tagging the store. $10.

• art
• fashion
• graffiti
• Kidult
• Marc Jacobs