Off the wall

Larger-than-life street-pop artist Thierry Guetta a.k.a. Mr. Brainwash shares his thoughts on Banksy, the White House and why he likes to keep his cards close to his chest. Words Josh Sims

“People say life is short but no, no, no, no – life is very long because every day is a new life,” exclaims Thierry Guetta. “We have no idea what will happen tomorrow. You can go for a drive and ten minutes later it all ends. You just don’t know what’s going to happen. But every day you can make a difference, make something better.”

Guetta knows of what he speaks. A little over a decade ago, the French-born, Los Angeles-based Guetta was an unknown street artist and videographer making a documentary on the better known, if still mysterious, Banksy. But then Banksy turned his Oscar-nominated Exit Through the Gift Shop into a film about Guetta. Suddenly, Guetta – a.k.a. Mr. Brainwash – was in the ascendant. And in a big way, too. The last few years have seen him make an estimated $20 million in art sales, create album covers for Madonna and Michael Jackson, collaborate with Nike, Mercedes and Coca-Cola, and even produce charity pieces for Michelle Obama and the Pope, whom he persuaded to paint with him.

“The clothes the Pope wears aren’t great for painting in though,” Guetta laughs. “And when Michelle Obama’s people called and asked if I wanted to do this project, I was like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah’. And then they said ‘Okay, first we need your passport to check on you’. It was more than that, they wanted to know everything. It turned out that she wanted me to do a wall that covered a full block. I got there at 4pm in the afternoon and said, ‘where is the nearest Home Depot?’ And I painted the block in one night. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to paint in The White House. I’m not that famous. But when I visited I did get to sticker ‘Life is Beautiful’ on the door. And I took a lot of selfies.”

Guetta, now 55, is underselling himself. In the world of street art, Mr. Brainwash is big. In part, it’s good timing – he’s ridden the market’s new-found interest in street art, an interest that’s perplexingly late, reckons Guetta, seeing as “street art goes to the heart of art itself - to [the source] of freedom of expression, of making a statement. It’s the art that’s really open to the world, that always has a spirit of invention.”

It’s also in part his media-friendly image – the hat, the beard, the permanently-attached sunglasses, the paintsplattered clothes, “though, really, the way I dress is the same every day, just because it’s easy for me,” he protests. “When I find a jacket I like I buy 30 of them and when they get too covered in paint I put them to one side. I’ve worn a hat for 25 years, a beard forever. I’m not a deep fashion guy. I’m more deep in life.”

Even more likely is that his success is a product of the unfailingly positive, referential nature of his work, with its hearts and hippyish ‘life is beautiful’ mantra and fun nods to Warhol, Van Gogh and the Impressionists. “I do that out of love, too,” says Guetta. “The artists I love were all real characters. Their life was the art. [Likewise] I’m just who I am. I don’t try to be anybody else.”

He has, however, perhaps only been half of himself. He admits that the demand for his resolutely positive style somewhat saw him painting himself into a corner and producing more of the same. But, in secret, he painted with another aesthetic, ready for a big reveal this year, and in a big setting – his own museum, opening in a Richard Meierdesigned building on LA’s Beverly Drive.

“I suppose I was trapped by the success,” he says. “But of course, I don’t resent that. I just kept working on what I felt I really wanted to show on the side, the work that I think shows a real evolution, that I feel is a deeper level of art. But I wouldn’t let go of [the kind of work I’m known for] because I think the positivity, the color, the soul of it makes a lot of people happy. And why would anyone shut down happiness?

“I’ve been very patient for many years and now it’s time for me to move to the next stage,” he adds. “When you wait 10 years to show something that reflects another side of you, that waiting is very hard, but also makes you feel very passionate about it. Ultimately, art is just the art that you do, it’s the art that you are.”

Guetta is keeping his cards close to his chest. There’s a documentary in the pipeline — marking a return to filmmaking that, he says, will eventually see him make feature films. “I think movies are the best tool for communication, better than painting, because when you watch a film you stop time, stop the voices, stop the weather,” he says. But until then, until he posts his planned one-time Instagram dump of thousands of images, he’ll reveal little about the private man behind the shades.

“I don’t need to share all that with people for now,” says Guetta. “But when I do I’ll be emptying my pockets completely — and it will be a relief. I couldn’t be utterly anonymous like Banksy. I need people in my life, I need to be out there giving the love.”

Thierry Guetta a.k.a. Mr. Brainwash in portrait