Touchpuppet » Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey + Iconoclast, “Soup Can II”

Zachary Hayes — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:20:24 +0000

Soup Can II is the second in a series of four hand printed Soup Cans Iconoclast will be releasing with Obey’s Shepard Fairey.

Measuring 20 x 16 inches and limited to 200 signed and numbered prints, this silkscreen and pencil artwork currently sells for $400, but is destined to become a much more valuable piece in the near future.

Available now from Iconoclast.

Via: hypebeast

Milton Glaser on Shepard Fairey and Plagiarism

Zachary Hayes — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:11:50 +0000

I seriously can’t take anymore Shepard Fairey news. With that said, here’s some more Shepard Fairey news (albeit this time, its much less friendly to Shepard and his work).

The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston just launched a solo show of work by poster artist (and semi-official Obama iconographer) Shepard Fairey.
But some in the design community feel the “by” in that first sentence is in question, since many of Fairey’s images are based on preexisting photos and illustrations. And this week the issue exploded: The Associate Press accused him of copyright infringement for his ubiquitous blue-and-red Obama poster–which they claim was based on an AP photo—and Fairey retained Anthony Falzone, a lawyer and executive director of Stanford’s Fair Use Project. Milton Glaser wades into the fray.
…
For myself—this is subjective—I find the relationship between Fairey’s work and his sources discomforting. Nothing substantial has been added. In my own case, when I did the Dylan poster, I acknowledged using Duchamp’s profile as an influence. I think unless you’re modifying it and making it your own, you’re on very tenuous ground. It’s a dangerous example for students, if they see that appropriating people’s work is the path to success. Simply reproducing the work of others robs you of your imagination and form-making abilities. You’re not developing the muscularity you need to invent your own ideas.

Full article here.

Shepard Fairey on CBS Sunday Morning

Zachary Hayes — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:14:21 +0000

Watch CBS Videos Online

In Defense of Shepard Fairey

Zachary Hayes — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:21:33 +0000

Good article over at boston.com discussing Shepard Fairey and the history of artists appropriating preexisting work. Its a very timely and poignant article and well worth your time if you have ever found yourself questioning the legitamacy of artwork like Shepard Faireys.

Why would Shepard Fairey, or any other artist, want to copy an image that is already out there and claim it as his own? Why would he think he could get away with it?
Forget, for the moment, the legalities: The laws governing intellectual property rights are, after all, devilishly complex. And put aside, if you will, the unrelated issue of whether Fairey deserves to be arrested for vandalism. We can leave that to the defenders of private property – self-appointed and otherwise. It’s a serious issue; speaking as a disinterested aesthete, I would only say that, for the most part, I’d rather look at Fairey’s attractively designed posters than the brain-pounding ads for fast-food outlets and failing banks that currently dominate the urban environment.
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Along came Pop artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein – both of whom routinely crop up in discussions of Fairey. Both treated preexisting images (comic strips in Lichtenstein’s case; advertisements in Warhol’s) as objects of wit and ironic play in ways that many found enormously appealing. Their work reflected an increasing savviness about visual signs on the part of the public – an ability to read them with skepticism and detachment even as one was seduced by them.

Read the full article here.

More on the Shepard Fairey Arrest

Zachary Hayes — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:11:59 +0000

The guys over at the Wooster Collective take a closer look at the recent arrest of Shepard Fairey.

For those who know Shepard Fairey, the news of his arrest in Boston, on the eve of his opening at the ICA, came as a big surprise. We were surprised because for well over a week while Shepard was preparing the exhibition, the biggest show of his life, he was the talk of the town. Shepard was everywhere, from the front page of the arts section of the Boston Globe to a highly publicized media event with the Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino.
Remembering that Boston was the same city where the Police had manipulated a promotional stunt for the show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” into a full scale terror alert, we asked ourselves: If the police wanted to arrest Shepard Fairey so badly, why did they wait so long after the warrant was issued to arrest him? In addition, why would they arrest him on the night of the biggest opening of his life at one of country’s most prestigious art institutions?

Go here for some answers.

Shepard Fairey Arrested In Boston

Zachary Hayes — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:56:30 +0000

I swear I’m going to have to give Shepard Fairey his own category soon if he doesn’t stay out of the damn headlines. But all joking aside, this probably isn’t how he wanted to end up in the newspapers today. Probably gives him back a little OG street cred though… 0_o

BOSTON — A street artist famous for his red, white and blue “Hope” posters of President Obama has been arrested on warrants accusing him of tagging property with graffiti, police said Saturday.
Shepard Fairey was arrested Friday night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff event for his first solo exhibition, called “Supply and Demand.”
Two warrants were issued for Fairey on Jan. 24 after police determined he’d tagged property in two locations with graffiti based on the Andre the Giant street art campaign from his early career, Officer James Kenneally said. One of the locations was the railroad trestle by the landmark Boston University bridge over the Charles River, police said.

Read the rest of the article here.

Shepard Fairey, EveryWairey

Zachary Hayes — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:40:28 +0000

AP Accuses Shepard Fairey Of Copyright Infringement

Zachary Hayes — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:27:32 +0000

The idiot police are out again, and this time it’s the Associated Press taking on street artist Shepard Fairey. The AP says it owns the copyright to the original image used in Fairey’s iconic HOPE poster (pictured above), and wants credit and compensation.

“The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission,” the AP’s director of media relations, Paul Colford, said in a statement. “AP safeguards its assets and looks at these events on a case-by-case basis. We have reached out to Mr. Fairey’s attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution.”
“We believe fair use protects Shepard’s right to do what he did here,” says Fairey’s lawyer, Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University and a lecturer at the Stanford Law School. “It wouldn’t be appropriate to comment beyond that at this time because we are in discussions about this with the AP.”

The Fair Use Act should hopefully protect Shepard in this case, especially considering the poster holds very little resemblance to the original photo aside from Obama’s pose. Read the full article here.

As a wholly unrelated note, I was unable to produce the Retro Wendsadays series this week as I was out of town (medical reasons), my apologies! I’ll do a double set next week.