Posted on 10/31/2008 11:31:43 PM PDT by Dajjal
Obama’s Venomous Artist-Fundraiser
by Stig O’Hara and Dirk McQuickly
Barack Obama has accepted an estimated two to four million dollars[1] through the help of Shepard Fairey, a "graffiti artist" who paints works glorifying Stalin, Lenin and Mao, while depicting Uncle Sam as a bloodthirsty killer -- and Obama has even written Fairey that he admires "the political messages involved in your work."[2]
The political messages in Fairey's art are:
1) Communist dictators are god-like supermen
2) The United States is a police state at home and an imperialist oppressor abroad
3) Capitalism is an evil system based on greed and exploitation
4) Ordinary Amerikkkan workers are guilty of blithely supporting an unjust system
5) The only good Americans are those who fight The System
6) The communist Peoples' Armies will soon triumph over Amerikkkan imperialism and bring peace to the world out of the barrel of a gun.
Obama has told Fairey that "your images have a profound effect on people."[3] Indeed.
Shepard Fairey is the artist who designed the set of Hope / Change / Progress posters in January, 2008 as fundraisers for Obama's challenge to Hillary Clinton in the primaries.
photo by Jonathan Alcorn for the Washington Post[4]
These images have been sold on posters, tee shirts, sweat shirts, buttons, stickers, coffee mugs and numerous other venues.
Posters autographed either by Fairey or Obama sell for high bids at auctions. One recently sold for $5,900.[5] Some of these auctions are probably done as Obama fundraisers.
Fairey has also been hosting and dj-ing at a few "Party For Change" dance fundraisers for Obama across the country. Here he is at one in L.A., posing with a guest (we blocked out her face). Note the tee shirt he is wearing while raising money for Obama. It's one of his own designs.
photo by Noa Schnal
Fairey has said "I have criticized the U.S. government in my work, though I am a patriotic American."[6] Right. Nothing says "I'm a patriotic American" like depicting Uncle Sam as a genocidal murderer.
Fairey recently responded to criticism by saying that "the Obama image ... is patriotic and in no way Socialist or Communist."[7] Well, we wouldn’t expect a piece of inked paper to believe any political ideology. But he does not say that he is not a socialist or communist.
He owns a company, Obey Giant, which sells prints of his artwork. Alongside posters of rock and rap musicians are posters glorifying Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Che, Saddam, and other enemies of the West.[8]
Fairey also sells posters depicting the United States as an imperialist oppressor around the world.
At home, Amerikkkans live in a police state. The ordinary citizens are complicit in guilt for thoughtlessly supporting an unjust system.
The Capitalist System enslaves mankind and pollutes the environment.
The only good Americans are those who rage against The Machine. They use the resources of capitalism’s products to communicate revolutionary ideas to the masses and work for the overthrow of the status quo.
The glorious revolutionary soldiers of the Peoples' Armies bring peace to the world out of the barrel of a gun.
Several of Fairey's political messages are united together in this triptych. The bloom of peace, brought about by communist soldiers and bomb throwers in the background, is eroding the influence of Amerikkkan imperialism, despite the attempts of an Amerikkkan soldier to poison it with his toxic venom.
Our "patriotic" artist believes that the motto of the United States should be "E pluribus venom" -- "out of many, poison." That motto is the title of his latest book, a collection of his most recent art.[9]
Those are the "the political messages involved in your work" which Barack Obama praised.
Fairey is well aware that he is a potential scandal for the Obama campaign. He told the Washington Post "I didn't want to be an unwelcome distraction" (distraction is a code word for scandal).[10]
He said he was surprised that his offer to create artwork for the campaign was approved. He told the Post, "you can assume this came from the highest levels."
Fairey is a "graffiti artist" -- which means that he breaks the law, defacing public or private property. He has been arrested numerous times. He claims that rather than being considered the "malicious destruction of property" his graffiti should be welcomed as a "benevolent enhancement."[11]
Most graffiti artists at least take the time and effort to spray paint their vandalism onto a wall. Fairey hit upon an easier method. He prints his graffiti art onto glued stickers or wheat-pasted posters, and then slaps these onto someone’s property.
Most graffiti artists also need to be talented enough to paint something resembling art by their own hands (e.g., Keith Haring’s works). Because Fairey could use a printing press, he had the luxury of plagiarizing other peoples' artwork, adding his own modifications, and printing that onto a sticker or poster.[12]
He became so criticized for plagiarism that he eventually began acknowledging his source art material in web or book descriptions[13], but is still criticized for refusing to pay royalties to the families of the artists from whom he steals.[14]
Fairey is fascinated by propaganda as a method of thought control, especially in the graphic art of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Maoist China.
His first famous artwork was a sticker depicting Andre the Giant (Andre Roussimoff, 1946 - 1993), the WWE Hall of Fame wrestler and actor.
In his mind, Fairey began to associate the strength of the wrestler with the power of giant government. Andre the Giant became a symbol of Big Brother because he was ... big. Fairey soon created a stylized version of Andre’s face, which he adopted as the logo of his Obey Giant company.
Fairey began producing graffiti in the style of Socialist Realism and his fame grew amongst the skateboard crowd. He soon founded BLK/MRKT Visual Communications to sell his rebel art to corporations marketing to the youth culture.[15]
In a bizarre twist of fate, Penguin Books hired Fairey to do the cover artwork for their latest reprints of 1984 and Animal Farm.[16] George Orwell must be spinning in his grave, seeing his book jackets designed by a man who thinks Stalin is cool.
Fairey’s health is not the best. He is said to be going blind due to diabetes.[17]
Some of Fairey’s critics accuse him of insincerity -- selling out his leftist ideals for the bank balance he deplores in his art. They say he is selling Soviet and Maoist-styled art as kitsch. Fairey convinced the Washington Post that "he is playing with Mao, not endorsing Mao."[18] He told Mother Jones, "I don't have a specific political affiliation."[19]
Personally, we do not care whether Fairey is a genuine Marxist or a fake Marxist. But we find it hard to believe that Fairey’s Stalinism and Maoism is phony. Suppose an author wrote books extolling the triumphs of Stalin, Lenin and Mao while never mentioning the millions of people they killed or the terror of their dictatorships -- would it be credible for the author to claim he was simply employing postmodern irony? We don’t think so. We’d have to conclude that he really admired Stalin, Lenin and Mao. Why should the visual arts be treated differently? If a painter honors Stalin, Lenin and Mao in his portraits, it seems reasonable to infer that he idolizes them in his heart.
But if Fairey can pay his rent and grocery bills by selling leftist art, good for him. He’s not the first. We have no objection unless he slaps his graffiti onto our walls or the corner stop sign.
Our complaint is not really with Fairey, but with Barack Obama.
Fairey’s lucrative patronage places him in position for being rewarded with a high government appointment in an Obama administration. What would Obama give to Fairey? Hire him as Artistic Director for the Inauguration, Red-Square-style? Nominate him to become Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts? Or maybe Obama will name Fairey to his cabinet as Kommisar of Kulture?
Shepard Fairey is another Amerikkka-hating associate of Obama. It is wrong for a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America to be raising millions of dollars through the assistance of someone who lionizes Stalin, Lenin and Mao.
Obama and his supporters should immediately purge all Fairey posters and paraphernalia from the campaign. The campaign should calculate exactly how much money was raised through the sale of Fairey materials, and return the money to the donors where they are known, while giving the balance away to charity. Finally, the campaign should return all of the money Shepard Fairey has donated personally or raised through his dance parties.
Some questions need to be asked.
What precisely does Barack Obama admire about Shepard Fairey’s political messages? Why does Barack Obama surround himself with Amerikkka-hating people like Shepard Fairey? Why does a Stalin-Lenin-and-Mao-loving person like Shepard Fairey support Barack Obama? What does someone who portrays Uncle Sam as a bloodthirsty tyrant find compatible in Barack Obama’s political philosophy -- so compatible that he raises money for Obama while wearing that image on his shirt? And what does it say about Barack Obama that someone who exalts totalitarian dictators is attracted to his "political messages?"
Notes
1. Creative Review reported on June 4, 2008 that between January - May, 2008 Fairey had raised $400,000 through poster sales alone. http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/faireys-400k-for-obama That's not including all the money raised from the poster images on tee shirts, sweat shirts, buttons, stickers, coffee mugs, and numerous other venues. If they are on a par with the poster sales, those combined sales could bring the Jan. - May total to around $1,000,000. If the June to October sales kept at a steady rate; then the current total would be around $2,000,000. But if sales increased after Obama beat Hillary in the delegate count, had a spike at the Denver convention, and have accelerated after Labor Day, then the figure could easily be over $3,000,000. Add in auctions of autographed posters and the money raised at the dances, and the total might be up around $4,000,000. That is our guestimate, extrapolating from the June 4th report.
2. "Dear Shepard, I would like to thank you for using your talent in support of my campaign. The political messages involved in your work have encouraged Americans to believe they can help change the status quo. Your images have a profound effect on people, whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign. I am privileged to be a part of your artwork and proud to have your support. I wish you continued success and creativity. Sincerely, Barack Obama. February 22, 2008." http://obeygiant.com/headlines/check-it-out
3. ibid.
4. http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/05/16/PH2008051601019.jpg
5. "Obama's On-the-Wall Endorsement" by William Booth, Washington Post, May 18, 2008. "[H]e wanted to make posters that the cool cats would want. The 2008 Democratic primary season equivalent of the Che poster (with all that implies). More Mao, more right now. The kind of poster that might make its way onto dorm room walls of fanboys. The kind of poster that might sell on eBay, as a signed Fairey Obama recently did, for $5,900." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051601017_pf.html
6. "'NICE TRY.' Dear protector of visual (and lingual) illiteracy: Your small mindedness is very sad. My Obama image is my unique creation and not plagiarized as you falsely state. The Obama image is a positive image that is patriotic and in no way Socialist or Communist. Is your assertion that my poster is 'RED' based on my use of the colors from the AMERICAN flag, one of which happens to be red? I have criticized the U.S. government in my work, though I am a patriotic American. I believe patriotism is about trying to follow your conscience and make the country the best it can be. You are obviously a nationalist who supports the U.S. unconditionally. Nationalism brought Hitler to power. I’m not interested in promoting that mentality. If I thought it was possible to appeal to your intellect I would, but you did not even spell Barack correctly. I actually feel sorry for you, but even more so for the people who live in fear and might be manipulated by your disinformation. It is very sad that people like you resort to such sleazy tactics, and that decent people have to spend time combating small mindedness and disinformation. This once again demonstrates how much is at stake in this election. Those who support honesty and sanity need to take a look at the other side and stay motivated. Thanks. Shepard" http://obeygiant.com/headlines/nice-try
7. ibid.
8. See http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Prints
9. E Pluribus Venom: Obey: the Art of Shepard Fairey. Corte Madera, CA: Gingko Press, 2008.
10. op. cit., n. 5. "In the weeks before Super Tuesday 2008, ‘I put out the word I wanted to do something for Obama,’ explains Fairey, through Yosi Sergant, a plugged-in ‘early adopter’ publicist in Los Angeles who knew prominent Democrats in the Obama circle. ‘I didn’t want to be an unwelcome distraction,’ Fairey explains. ‘I’ve been arrested,’ he says, referring to his graffiti work in public places. ‘I really want him to win, so I didn’t want to do anything that would cause him problems.’ The Obama people, somewhat to his surprise, said go ahead. Who said, exactly? ‘You can assume this came from the highest levels,’ Fairey says. Indeed, the Obama campaign liked the posters so much it now sells them via the official campaign Web site store (for $70, and the supply is currently all sold out -- again)."
11. "Benevolent Enhancer" by Jennifer Henry, photography by Ward Robinson; Racket, July 2007. "Fairey prefers to re-characterize 'malicious destruction of public property' charges as 'benevolent enhancement,' insisting he isn’t a vicious vandal." http://www.racketonline.com/july07/shepard.html
12. "Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey" by Mark Vallen. http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm See also "Interview: Shepard Fairey" by Liam O'Donoghue, Mother Jones, March/April, 2008. http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2008/03/interview-shepard-fairey.html
13. http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/index.php/Category:References
14. op. cit., n. 12.
15. http://www.blkmrkt.com
16. http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2008/04/it-was-a-bright.html
17. "Shepard Fairey, Blind?" by Hamilton Nolan, Gawker, May 2, 2008. http://gawker.com/386773
18. op. cit., n. 5. "Not only has Fairey done Obama, but works on the walls of his studio and on his Web site include depictions of Sid Vicious, Bobby Seale, Chairman Mao, Noam Chomsky, Emiliano Zapata, Patty Hearst, Vladimir Lenin and Richard Nixon. Though Fairey is quoting revolutionary forms (meaning he is playing with Mao, not endorsing Mao), some observers see his Obama poster and think: reds."
19. O'Donoghue, op. cit., n. 12.
Anti-copyright 2008 by Stig O’Hara and Dirk McQuickly. Please copy freely. No rights reserved.
Shepard Fairey ping
Or maybe stick him where the sun don't shine ... literally.
I would love to see a Fairey expose on YouTube, but have neither the time nor the expertise.
All of the pictures in the article (and more) are available (most in larger size) at:
http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/nn174/obamafairey/
I have to admit, this election has been hilarious in one way--the utter, COMPLETE hypocrisy (a word the left LOVES to slap on others) of Obama's fans. This artist in particular is a perfect case in point.
He complains about money, while Obama has spent up to five times as much as McCain.
He complains about Bush being an evil fascist--yes, the man who's given more money to AIDS research, freed more WOMEN from bondage, and overspent to a ridiculous amount on social programs...is a fascist?????
He complains about the government controlling people and spying on them, while supporting a man who got where he is by exposing a political opponent's divorce records, going after such terrifying forces as Joe the Plumber, and tossing the press off his plane unless their editors show favor on him.
This guy is #1 on the Leftist HYPOCRITE Countdown! It's so much fun to call genuine hypocrites what they are. Hyprocrite hypocrite hypocrite!
Why don't these people just admit the truth?
1.They like Obama because he's black, and their vote for him is a way of soothing their inner fear of black people who are different from them--i.e. black people who are as different INSIDE as ANY American--by supporting the ONLY kind of black people they don't fear, a predictably liberal one.
2.They like Obama because he doesn't view fetuses as human beings but as disposable matter. In other words, to them, convenience is king--even when it comes to people.
3. They like Obama because he wants to pay the way for "The Poor"--i.e. anyone making below $250k (or whatever today's number is) who thinks as they do.
That's what it all comes down to: True conservatives don't care what YOU think, just don't try to impose it on me or mine, while True liberals want to control EVERYONE's thinking because they, the libs, are Good and Correct, and you will agree once your brain has been bathed in Marxist goodness.
This guy is a tool, and he knows you can't go wrong playing to the biases of your fellow artists and Marxists.
BTW—have you noticed how utterly derivative and unoriginal this guy’s stuff is?
Most graffiti artists also need to be talented enough to paint something resembling art by their own hands (e.g., Keith Haring’s works). Because Fairey could use a printing press, he had the luxury of plagiarizing other peoples' artwork, adding his own modifications, and printing that onto a sticker or poster.[12]
He became so criticized for plagiarism that he eventually began acknowledging his source art material in web or book descriptions[13], but is still criticized for refusing to pay royalties to the families of the artists from whom he steals.[14]
Even his Obama propaganda posters are just photographs painted over.
Yet if you or I did the same to his work, he'd swarm down on us with lawyers.
Good post.
How will those that follow blindly explain to future generations their throwing away of freedom of the greatest country in the world?
How will those that seek to limit freedom for those they deem not worthy explain to their maker their throwing away this freedom too for ompression?
GREAT article!!!
We need to send these out to everyone we can think of. Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly, all of the media. This is another straw for that camel’s back. Good research.
Send it out to blogs too.
It’s derivative because most of it is copied.
But looking through his depressingly large and unvaried output, I couldn’t exactly understand what he was getting at. What’s with the “obey” theme? It seems to be negative when connected with US-related images, but then it also appears on the portraits of people who are his heroes or things related to the “people.”
He clearly likes thugs like Mao and Che, and depicts them in a heroic light, which I suppose is what his “giant” theme is all about.
Maybe he’s like one of the gays who goes down to the South of Market bar dressed in leather and wearing an SS cap. They’re kind of wimpy people themselves, but they love the fantasy of power and brutality.
In any case, I find his work downright creepy. I’ve seen some of the posters (such as the ones with various heroic-looking armed militants) stuck on the sides of buildings in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, a squalid area that is also a hotbed of “community organizing” groups.
What I meant was that his whole aesthetic is derivative, from soup to nuts. He brings nothing new to the table--this quasi-corporate logo stuff is so old it creaks, yet he is praised not because of any inherent quality in the work, but only because he's pushing a certain political perspective. If he were doing something NEW while pushing it, I'd have to admire the originality. But this cut-and-paste-to-distort-original-meaning stuff is really creaky Greenwich Village handbill stuff.
That's why they hired him. He picks up the themes in the books perfectly, just like Obama.
LOL! Yes, it is. Actually, maybe Obama is fond of it because it was the type of thing you could see stuck to the lampposts before any left-wing rally around Columbia University. It takes him back...
He ripped off NAZI propaganda imagery AND COMMUNIST propaganda imagery AND domestic terorist propaganda imagery AND he is the official face and name artist of the Obama campaign.
He IS the modern Warhol, the man who made Barry an icon for 15 minutes. Made Barack into Campbells. Turned OBAMA into CHEVY. Branding.
Through AGIT PROP.
I loathe despots and their sick enablers.
Sick stuff.
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