Biography

Mr. Brainwash is the pseudonym of street artist Thierry Guetta, born in 1966. The artist, who hails from near Paris, became best known for his 2010 film 'Exit Through the Giftshop'. Guetta's first solo exhibition Life is Beautiful in 2008 inspired Banksy for the later film. It is unclear whether this is a documentary, a feature film, or else a mockumentary (a fictional documentary that parodies the genre). The film first tells of Guetta making a documentary about his cousin, the street artist Invader and his work, and meeting the famous street art phantom Banksy. On Guetta's promise to Banksy to make the best street art documentary, Banksy himself takes over the direction and now in turn makes a film about Guetta, who mutates from filmmaker to artist, creating graffiti and street art himself. Guetta uses existing motifs from popular culture and art history for his works and adds further pictorial elements to change them in the sense. Another well-known work of Mr. Brainwash is the design of the cover of Madonna's greatest hits album 'Celebration' from 2009.

If you would like to sell objects by Mr. Brainwash in one of our auctions, please feel free to contact our expert Laura Hille at l.hille@quittenbaum.de.


Objects by Mr Brainwash (Thierry Guetta)