ARTISTS VS. STREET ART
As street art moves more into the mainstream, some critics fear it will lose its essential edginess. "The Splasher," an unidentified person or group of people, splashed paint on a number of works by famous street artists from late 2006 to 2007. Believing that street art had become too commercial and mainstream, the Splasher felt the only way to counter it was through destruction.But many feel that the popularity of street of art is going to lead to its disappearance without any destruction necessary. The argument is that street art is a fad, and that people spending large sums for it today are going to regret it in the future when they realize the work has no lasting value. After all, street art is not supposed to be permanent it is meant to be washed away by the elements, painted over, or built on top of It is created quickly and often deals with current and local issues. All of these aspects, say critics mean that the art loses its aesthetic value when taken off the streets, and that it is rational to assume that such art will lose its economic value when it goes out of style.