The "Prankumentary" Exit Through the Gift Shop was about Thierry Guetta, a French man who always had a camera in his hands. The film is the story of how he attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner with spectacular results. Billed as 'the world's first street art disaster movie' the film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work ( http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/exit_through_the_gift_shop/ ).
The film started out showing Thierry with his camera, and not knowing what to film. He then met Shephard Fairey, a street artist, who let him follow him on late night street art activities. Thierry documented everything about this artist, and then also wanted to film Banksy, another famous street artist. He told the artists that he was going to create a documentary, but in reality, he had no intention of doing so. Thierry even helps the artists in putting up their creations on buildings and assisting them in their street art acts.
Banksy soon realizes that Thierry is a lousy film maker, so Banksy decides to use the footage and add additional material to make his own movie about Thierry's journey in this project. Since Thierry spent so much time involved in the process of street art, Banksy also convinces Thierry to become a street artist himself. Thierry reinvents himself as street artist MBW, an acronym for "Mr. Brainwash". Banksy, in the end, may regret this suggestion. Thierry takes what he has learned from these street artists and hires other artists to create artwork for him. He had an illustrator create his own "label" and he began putting it up on buildings around LA. He hired a crew to create his first artshow. Basically, Thierry was the "boss" and the creative director behind the whole operation, taking pop art or someone else's work and having his team recreate it.
Surprisingly, Thierry had a successful art show and sold close to a million dollars worth of art. This was due to praise by the other street artists, and the media giving it attention (an article was written in LA Weekly). The last interview in the documentary was of Bansky. He said that he thought Thierry was successful and is making more money than him now, but basically stole others ideas and that it wasn't really his own work.
The point of the whole documentary was to show how quickly an art movement can blow up in popularity, and how quickly someone can become an artist.
I do not think that Mr. Brainwash is a legitimate artist since he stole others techniques, methods, and even art to create something that he claimed was his. He didn't draw his own logo, he had someone else draw it for him. He hired artists to create his art show for him as well, and just directed them. He may have come up with the ideas, but the ideas were not entirely his; they were recreations of art that was already made. For example, he copied Warhol with his pop art inspired pieces and posters. The most he would actually do art-wise that was hands on was splatter paint on his prints, or put his logo up on buildings. He cared more about the press than actually putting together his show. His art show was put together last-minute as people were waiting outside in line to get in, and Thierry was in an interview.
A real artist to me is someone who has spent a lot of time finding their style and actually creating their artwork using different methods until they find one that works best for them. Banksy spent years and years perfecting his street art, and Thierry seemed to become one overnight. Thierry was the mind behind his art show, but I feel that he was not the actual artist since he has so many other people helping him and doing the artwork for him.
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