Shepard Fairey’s Obama Portrait Hung in National Gallery
If you know me, you know I love culture jammer and guerrilla artist Shepard Fairey. That’s why it thrilled me to no end when I read that his iconic poster of Obama was purchased by and hung in the National Portrait Gallery this weekend.
I first fell in love with Fairey’s work when I saw the “Obey Giant” campaign in the 90′s. I remember wondering why someone would paste up Andre the Giant’s face with “Obey” underneath it. I had my own ideas, and so did my friends. We were all kind of waiting for the full marketing/ad campaign to be revealed. When we found out it was just art, it really taught me how affected we are by commercial art. Most of all, I loved how Fairey was trying to recliam our common public spaces by putting up art that makes us think instead of try to buy something.
Fairey usually takes a discerning and negative approach to the government and those who control the media. Obama’s idealism inspired Fairey to make positive posters. He also wanted to inspire young voters to get involved in the electoral process–and it worked:
“My desire for the image was to make something that I thought was patriotic and iconic but unique enough to capture the interest of people.”
He released the image on his Web site shortly after he created it and made thousands of posters for the street. As its visibility caught on, supporters began downloading the image and distributing it at campaign events, while blogs and other Internet sites picked it up.
“It was both the visible presence of the posters and the Internet combined that yielded an immediate viral storm,” he said.
At first, Obama’s team just gave him permission to make the image, he said. But soon after he created it, a worker involved in the campaign asked if Fairey could make an image from a photo the campaign had rights to, he said. Fairey changed the portrait’s bottom phrase to “change” for a revised illustration.
Fairey has since started working on posters against the passing of California’s Prop 8, saying: “When we become authenticity police for love, we’re on really shaky ground.”
For those not familiar with Shepard’s work, you can check out his website or his books: Obey: Supply & Demand : The Art of Shepard Fairey
Also, check out this great slide show from the LA Times of other artists’ portraits of Obama.
Do you think the inclusion of guerrilla artist Shepard Fairey in the National Gallery legitimizes culture jamming? Will we finally stop selling out our public spaces to the highest bidder? Or will marketers use this style to try and target the young, hip set?
