Shepard Fairey - master of plagiarism or art revolutionary?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Today Shepard Fairey is known as the brightest representative of pop art, a creative artist and graphic designer. He burst into the world of art with bright and “speaking” paintings and immediately caused a lot of controversy around him, which has not subsided to this day. The artist works under the pseudonym Obey, which means “obey”, “obey”, and all his work seems to ask you to listen to the world and peer into the surrounding realities. But skeptical critics are trying to convict the artist of deceit. Who is he: a master of plagiarism or an art revolutionary?

Biography

Shepard Fairey was born in Charleston (USA) in the family of an ordinary doctor. But already from childhood, he showed the abilities of a not quite ordinary child. He was fond of punk rock and DIY art (which means "do it yourself"). He took his first creative steps by painting the clothes and skateboards of friends, already "armed" with a well-known pseudonym.

At 22 years old, Shepard has a fine arts class from the Rhode Island School of Design and several career paths. Graphic design and music became the first rung of the artist's career ladder. After some time of Shepard's workare exhibited in Boston and immediately make an impression. The designer is associated with three styles: graffiti, pop and public art.

In 2003, Fairey opened his own design agency. Today, his work is included in the collections of several museums, art institutes in the US and UK.

The artist was arrested several times for painting graffiti in public places and putting up advertising posters.

Creativity

As an artist, Shepard Fairey has always been distinguished by his ability to react vividly and in an original way to what is happening in the world. His paintings are a reflection of ideological, religious, political and environmental issues. World fame came to the artist in 2008 with a poster for the election campaign of Barack Obama. The creation received the symbolic name Hope (or "Hope"), which largely influenced the course of the elections.

Shepard Fairey immediately formed a unique creative style. His paintings are recognizable, reminiscent of Soviet posters in their color palette and style. According to the artist himself, the work of Martin Heidegger and Alexander Rodchenko had a great influence on him.

Commercial design

Some time after graduating from design school, Fairey worked in a print shop and made stickers, decals, posters and promotional t-shirts. Later, he switched to "guerrilla" marketing and realized himself in large projects of Adidas and Pepsi. It is Fairy who owns the logo of the Mozilla Foundation - the creator of the browserFirefox. Also noteworthy is the designer's collaboration with the Black Eyed Peas and Smashing Pumkins, which he designed album covers for.

According to Fairey himself, the choice of products for advertising is carried out by him primarily from a moral standpoint, and not commercial.

Graffiti

Least of all for colleagues and connoisseurs of art Shepard Fairey showed himself in street art. However, his work in this direction also attracts attention. Graffiti artists say that Fairey skillfully and actively exploits popular social topics, but this does not make him a master of street art. Obey's graffiti style work is more of a "guerilla" marketing or advertising, which, of course, is far from street art. Simply put, they are not connected with the street, the interaction of space and people. Despite this assessment, Shepard Fairey often arranges exhibitions in galleries in Europe and the USA and always receives a warm welcome and attention to his work.

Criticism

The creative path of Shepard Fairey has always been restless and exciting. There are skeptical critics who are looking for and seem to find evidence of plagiarism in the artist's work. Art historian Lincoln Cushing and artist Josh McPhee are among them. Their doubts are caused by the style and forms that Shepard Fae uses. His paintings, like photocopies, have neither clear lines nor strokes. And the images used by the artist are beaten and familiar to everyone.

Any representative of art, one way or another, falls underinfluence of predecessors. He adopts, rethinks, transforms and forms his own unique style. According to critics, Shepard only copies other people's work with minor changes and stylization and passes it off as his own. So, the scandal around Shepard's work dedicated to the wrestling star Andre the Giant is often remembered. After WWE threatened the artist with a lawsuit, accusing him of using a registered mark, Fairy changed the wrestler's portrait and slogan to Obey. It is noteworthy that one of Andre the Giant's compositions is similar to the Soviet poster by Dmitry Moor "Registered as a volunteer?".

Fairy's most famous work, Hope, was also the cause of the lawsuit. Then the Associated Press accused the artist of using a 2006 image of Obama commissioned by the agency.

P. S

The work of Shepard Fairey brings the designer profit and fame, accusations and arrests. But the Rhode Island School of Design can still be proud of its graduate. After all, despite all the suspicions and claims from the authorities and critics, Fairy was and remains a versatile, lively and fashionable artist. His works if not turned the world upside down, then influenced the "public discourse".