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Fairey's Pittsburgh appearance comes with a plate of crow
The opening of the exhibit "Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand" marked Fairey's first public appearance since word broke late last week that the Los Angeles-based street artist had used a photo under copyright by the Associated Press as the basis for his widely seen Barack Obama "HOPE" poster. It's the subject of a lawsuit between AP and Fairey over the concept of "fair use." He also admitted to destroying some pieces of evidence and fabricating others.
Fairey's legal team has cut him loose and one intellectual property lawyer described his actions as "brain-dead."
The poster was "a piece of grassroots activism" not commissioned by the Obama campaign, the 39-year-old explained in an on-stage interview with Warhol director Tom Sokolowski. He added that he was "very disappointed" in himself and that his actions were short-sighted and done out of "embarrassment, fear and pride."
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A native of South Carolina, Fairey was a "somewhat unhappy kid" who found solace in punk rock and the skateboarding scene. He first broke through by creating posters and stickers built around the wrestler Andre the Giant that ended up being randomly plastered on the sides of buildings around the country.
"I struck an interesting balance between the sinister and the goofy," he said. Fairey has since worked for Pepsi, designed the movie poster for the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line," the Black Eyed Peas disc "Monkey Business" and the Led Zeppelin greatest-hits collection, "Mothership." Fairey sold 300,000 posters of the Obama poster on his Web site (obeygiant.com) and a half-million stickers.
Unlike Warhol's work, which was politically neutral, Fairey's art is engaged with issues surrounding war, the media, totalitarianism and consumerism. He calls himself "a renegade within the system." Fairey's influences include historical propaganda posters, particularly those from the early days of the Soviet Union, art created in the Depression by the Works Progress Administration and medieval Islamic mosaic work. When he first burst on the scene, he crafted his own manifesto, the central thrust of which is "empower yourself and question everything."
"Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand" originated at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston earlier this year. It contains the "HOPE" poster along with about 250 other works. It will be at the Warhol through Jan. 18, along with the exhibit "Supertrash," which spotlights posters from various B-grade flicks and exploitation movies. For information call 412-237-8300 or go online to www.warhol.org.
Staff writer Brad Hundt can be reached at bhundt@observer-reporter.com.
Renegade? : 11/13/2009
Sounds to me like he is a renegade outside of the system. And brain-dead at that. I thought that art was creation, not ripping off copyrighted work. What a sad state of affairs.
