Art of Politics ["Obey Obama" - Obama's official poster-maker loves Stalin, Mao, etc.]

New York Times Magazine ^ | April 13, 2008 | Rob Walker

[Dajjal]

"Does pro-Obama creativity say more about the candidate or his fans?"

Well, the New York Times asked the question, so it must be worthy to print and all that.

Does the fact that Obama's official poster-maker loves Stalin and Mao say something about Obama, or just Obama's fans?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/magazine/13wwln-consumed-t.html

New York Times Magazine (p.27)
April 13, 2008

The Art Of Politics
Does pro-Obama creativity say more about the candidate or his fans?

by Rob Walker

Obama art

Whether or not Barack Obama would make a good president, it’s clear that he makes an excellent muse. It’s hard to think of a political candidate in recent memory who has, in real time, inspired so much creativity, exercised free of charge and for the campaign’s benefit. Perhaps this suggests something about Obama — or maybe it suggests something about his supporters.

... One of the most prominent is ... the Los Angeles artist Shepard Fairey in January.... Fairey made a brief statement ... noting his “great conviction that Barack Obama should be the next President.” Poster sales, he added, would underwrite “a large statewide poster campaign.”

In addition to popping up on many streets, the image later made its way onto a T-shirt, created in collaboration with the San Francisco street-wear brand Upper Playground — and apparently onto the radar of the Obama campaign. The candidate himself sent a thank-you note, and his campaign had Fairey create a new poster that became the inaugural offering in an “Artists for Obama” section of the barackobama.com online store. Fairey told Creativity Online that while he has been politically active, there’s something new in the enthusiasm he now professes to feel. “I just thought it was time to stick my neck out,” he said....

[Dajjal]

Here are comments from my brother, who clued me onto Obama's artist.

Here is the official poster sold at the Obama campaign website:

Product Code: PO26951:

http://store.barackobama.com/product_p/po26951.htm

http://store.barackobama.com/Artists_for_Obama_s/1018.htm

The artist who created this image is Shepard Fairey.

As Time Magazine puts it, SF is "The man who launched the sticker revolution."

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/street_art/20.html

Previously people who did "graffiti art," like Warhol find Jean-Michel Basquiat, spray painted buildings. Even if they did the same image over and over again, each spray painting was unique. Fairey hit on the idea of pre-printing his vandalism as stickers and then covering an urbane area with the endless repeation on the same image.

The first idea SF had was a sticker of Andre the Giant:

In Fairey's mind, Andrea the Giant gets mixed up with Big Brother, since Andrea, is, well, big. This produces Fairey's next sticker campaign: "Obey Andrea":

Hitting upon Soviet aesthetics, Fairey became a big hit with those who wax nostalgic for the return of the USSR. He founded BLK/MRKT Visual Communications to sell his rebel hipness to Hawaiian Punch:

http://www.blkmrkt.com/blkmrkt.html

The art side is run out of http://obeygiant.com ... Here are some examples of that work:

http://obeygiant.com/archives?nggpage=7

http://mkgallery.com/artists/fairey/fairey_2006_3.html

Of course God reminds us not to value this life to too highly by allowing it to endlessly descend to lower and lower levels of self parody. This it came to pass, my brothers, that when Penguin Books was getting around to reissue the Orwell "backlist," they picked Fairey to do the covers for "1984" and "Animal Farm" ... i.e., a guy who thinks Stalin was cool will now insert himself into the history of these texts:

http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2008/04/it-was-a-bright.html

Oh yes, this is not eltist:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/13/magazine/13consumed.xlarge1.jpg

Here just a few Fairey prints from his "Obey" website:

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Prints

Also it seems that Obama says he picked Fairey because of the "political messages" in his earlier art (all that Stalin stuff!) ...

Obama has a plank in his platform for artists

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/additional/Obama_FactSheet_Arts.pdf

Barack Obama: A Champion for Arts and Culture
A Platform In Support of the Arts
[excerpt]
Create an Artist Corps: Barack Obama supports the creation of an "Artist Corps" of young artists trained to work in low-income schools and their communities. Studies in Chicago have demonstrated that test scores improved faster for students enrolled in low-income schools that link arts across the curriculum than scores for students in schools lacking such programs.

I assume this government funded "Artist Corps" Obama is going to create will be the ones drawing the pictures of the Glorious People's Tractor plowing the land ....

See also this companion thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006109/posts
Shepard Fairey: Obey Obama
by Jeff Beer

[Dajjal]

Obama ping

See also the companion thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2006109/posts
Shepard Fairey: Obey Obama
interview with Jeff Beer

[Jeff Chandler]

www.obeythepurebreed.com/

[Free ThinkerNY]

It seems that Obama is attracting every America hating Marxist and terrorist to his cause. He loves having their support. He’s the most dangerous candidate for the Presidency in the history of this nation.

[weegee]

The Obama campaign solicited this artist. Obama himself sent him a hand signed letter and acknowledged seeing his work in galleries AND on stop signs in public.

Obama knew what he was getting.

It is getting tiresome listening to this Socialist stooge pretend that he didn’t know what everyone he’s ever associated with had to say about Karl Marx.

[Ilya Mourometz]

Fascinating and another angle in may growing conviction that Obama is as close to a true fascist as this Country has ever produced. The artwork is, objectively speaking, powerful and effective. By the same token, politicians in the US and Europe have, for decades, shied away from such powerful imagery precisely because of its over fascist overtones. The whole “godlike” image projected through the use of bold colors and simple, stark lines—whether to demonize Bush as an SS/Hitlerian freak, or Obama as the heir to Guevera’s mantle of mass-murder.

Every day, I become more and more terrified of what this man, Obama, is really about. This artist, clearly talented, must understand and know what he’s doing. I can appreciate the fact that one might view Leni Reifenstahl as a great artist, separate and apart from the regime she supported, yet I doubt hers is a legacy one would envy. Unlike Riefenstahl, who claims to have been duped or oblivious, this person, Fairey, is fully conscious of the role he is playing in bringing a true fascist to power in this country. Not the fantasy of fascism that he projects onto Bush, but a true fascist in the mold of Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin. For all his deliberately misused talents in the service of true evil, may Fairey’s name be cast out from the family of man forever.

[weegee]

But because of the Hollywood Reds’ smear of the Communist hearings, it is considered kneejerk to call someone a Communist. But it is acceptable for Congressmen to call Republicans NAZIs on the floor of the House.

unbelievable.

[Dajjal]

Fairey is having trouble on another front: the estates of some artists whose work he has been "appropriating" are not amused and see Fairey as a plagiarist.

http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm
Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey
by Mark Vallen

[weegee]

Mr. Fairey should read what George Orwell had to say about 1984 and Animal Farm. They were about Stalinists. Not just in the USSR but also in the US and UK.

[Dajjal]

Great parodies of Fairey at the Peoples' Cube:

http://thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=1884
Hope, Dope, Grope, and Other Obamunist Posters
by Commissar Maksim

[Dajjal]

Again, I’d like to tip my hat to my brother for doing all the “legwork” in finding this stuff. Kudos to him.

[Ilya Mourometz]

Is this also by Fairey, because he does have Ron Paul (haha) merchandise and even some Reagan t-shirts, though given the anti-american screed he puts in the article, I’m sure he sees that all as a joke.

[Dajjal]

Another article on Fairey:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-daum12apr12,0,5472791.column
Obama As An Art Form
by Meghan Daum

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Just wow.

[Jeff Chandler]

I don’t think the pet art is his.

[TeleStraightShooter]

quite revealing

[Travis McGee]

Another America-hating commie creep who is a buddy of Barack’s. Sheesh! This will make a great campaign ad.

[potlatch]

Thanks Spirit! Amazing!!

devolve, come look at these images!

[cricket]

Good job by NYT's doing a 'face-painting/saving' analysis of Obama's 'friends' in the world. . .Nice learning that they are just the 'creative types'; whom, for whatEVER reason; are inspired by Obama.

These people cannot even say the word, 'Liberal' when it comes to identifying themselves or 'friends'; so we know where 'Marxist' stands. . .

[glock rocks]

[Ilya Mourometz]

Wow. That’s a real eye-opening article about Fairey. The article is a bit lefty (a lot really), but seeing beyond that, it’s clear that Fairey is a grade-a plagiarist. The author suggests that he’s actually mocking leftists by expropriating their images, but I dunno.

[OeOeO]

[glock rocks]

[endthematrix]

I’m going to pop a few of these posters along with the Obama support letter to some local businesses and public offices. This will raise eye brows!

[bruinbirdman]

"It seems that Obama is attracting every America hating Marxist and terrorist to his cause."

There are plenty of them on Clintoon's side. Especially, Hillary.

yitbos

[devolve]

.

More proof that Obama is a moron!

[Ilya Mourometz]

From the plagiarism article, last line:

“If carefully examined, the rebellious patina and ersatz activism of Shepard Fairey’s art gives way to reveal little in the way of political imagination. Ultimately his work is the very embodiment of “radical chic”, bereft of historical memory and offering only feeble gestures, babbling incoherencies, and obscurantism as a challenge to the deplorable state of the world. Such an artist cannot provide us with a critical assessment of where we stand today”

I cannot think of a better description of Obama himself. While I cannot sympathize with the lefitst sympathies of the author critquing Fairey, I only hope this merely epitomizes Obama as well. In other words, I hope he is a fake, like Fairey, and not the real thing, a real Manchurian Candidate.

[Enchante]

It gets better — Obama’s official campaign blogger is so far left (and proud of it) that he sounds a lot like Ayers and Dohrn....... but he advises Noam Chomsky to be less honest and forthright about his views so as to fool the bitter, dim-bulb masses:

Obama’s Official Blogger: A Hardcore Marxist
Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 8:45:59 am PST

Barack Obama’s “official campaign blogger,” Sam Graham-Felsen, is a hardcore Marxist—and even leftists like this are disturbed by his presence on the campaign staff: Sam Graham-Felsen stands for what?

UPDATE at 4/23/08 10:28:55 am:

Here’s an article by Sam Graham-Felsen at the Harvard Crimson, expressing his admiration for anti-American academic Noam Chomsky, and advising him to tone down the extreme rhetoric in order to trick the unwashed masses into following along: Chomsky’s Choice.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=29708&only

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[potlatch]

[More proof that Obama is a moron!]

Hey devolve!! Maybe Obama will like some of OUR graphics and we can get paid, lolol.

[Enchante]

This says it all about Obambi's favorite poster propagandist:

"When a will to plagiarize and a love for self-promotion are the only requirements necessary for becoming an artist, then clearly the arts are in deep trouble."

[devolve]

.

LOL!

If he knew who we are and where we are his little creeps would stop by for a visit I think!

[potlatch]

Thanks Enchante, 459 comments so I’ll wait till tomorrow to browse, lol.

I guess only ‘we’ on the internet really are aware of all this stuff as it sure isn’t in the newspaper for the general public to see!!

[potlatch]

AND not for ‘tea and crumpets’ either, lol.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

[beaversmom]

Infidel ping. Just something else taken out of context I guess. A misunderstanding.

[devolve]

.

Not bagels either!

I’m waiting to see both Obamas totally destroyed!

Michelle says “America only gets once chance to elect her Messiah”!

[dynachrome]

“Fairey”

Aptly named.

[Dajjal]

Here is one of his mind-control posters. You "obey" him if you buy it, and you "obey" him if you don't buy it.

[MeekOneGOP]

I saw a bumper sticker the other day:

- - - - -

“Barack the Vote ‘08”.

- - - - -

Barf !!

[PGalt]

Thanks for the post/ping(s). Thanks for the link. Great thread. Thanks to all contributors.

Content of character(s) BUMP!

[bruinbirdman]

" it’s also not impossible to view Fairey’s work as right-wing in essence, since it largely ransacks leftist history and imagery while the artist laughs all the way to the bank."

My first impression.

yitbos

[Enchante]

"not impossible to view Fairey’s work as right-wing in essence"

leftie-speak for "here's a wild-ass fabrication that is about as far out there as we can make it, but it sure would be helpful if you suckers would buy into it"

[PhilDragoo]

[bruinbirdman]

"it largely ransacks leftist history and imagery "

The Fairy is doing Hussein no favors, a plus for Osama's opposition.

yitbos

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks TSoA.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Dajjal!

[Dajjal]

" it’s also not impossible to view Fairey’s work as right-wing in essence, since it largely ransacks leftist history and imagery while the artist laughs all the way to the bank."

My first impression.

Do you find this one "right-wing in essence"?

[21twelve]

The first time I saw that first poster (”Change” with the different colors) was on FR and I thought for sure it was some freeper’s great artwork showing how Obama is a Communist by using that old-style commie imagery. Seriously - it wasn’t until I saw it in the paper or a magazine that it was real. The other thought that came to mind was it looked like a poster from “1984”. I see he did some of the revised artwork for its re-release. (Or at least plagerized some artwork for the release).

[Enchante]

Yes, that captures the ‘essence’ of every right-winger I know! /s

These people are such complete clowns, yet Obama has chosen to surround himself with some of the most delusional leftards around. I want to believe that this info will finally get traction in the media before November, but the MSM is so dishonest and propagandistic for Obambi that they will do all they can to ignore, downplay, and/or trivialize the real nature of Obama and his Merry Band of Weatherfreaks.