Artistic Genius or Artist Crook?

As a student who is not majoring in art, but instead appreciates it, I understand both views to the poster controversy of Shephard Fairey's "Hope". Steven Heller makes a good arguing point that art is being made new all the time, giving no one the rights or credit when an image is taken as "source imagery". I believe that Fairey's work does an amazing job of turning known images from the past into iconic modern art. Andre the Giant stickers were first created as a sticker in 1989, since then it has become a famous symbol (Dooley 223). It has been seen around the world from Russia, Singapore, and Paris (Dooley 224). One of the strong indications that shows that the "Obey" posters have gone viral is the sightings of them in movies including: Gone in Sixty Seconds, The Devil's Own, 8 am, and Batman Forever (Dooley 225). As shown below is the most famous of Andre the Giant poster's, "Andre the Giant has a Posse".

Shepard Fairey’s “Andre the Giant has a Posse” image from Obey: Supply & Demand. Print. 25 January 2014.

One of Fairey's most famous pieces of work is "Obey" using Andre the Giant. Fairey uses Andre as someone who is recognized by the common, working class, which is Fairey's audience. Many people like Mark Vallen, believed Fairey stole images from the 1920's and 1960's propaganda in Russia and China. Steven Heller even says, "...I admit that on occasion he has come close to crossing the line from acceptable borrowing into murky infringement territory" (Heller 1). One of the famous comparisons of Fairey almost crossing the line is between John Van Hamersveld's poster of Jimi Hendrix, and Fairey's "Andre Hendrix Print," as seen below.

Left: John Van Hamersveld’s poster of Jimi Hendrix, image from Post-future.com. Web. 25 January 2014.
Right: Shepard Fairey’s “Andre Hendrix Print.” image from NYtimes.com. Web. 25 January 2014.

You can see how many comparisons there are between the two images, but one of the things I notice is how Fairey's image seems to make fun of Hamersveld's. In Hamersveld's you have this powerful image, the strong gaze of Jimi Hendrix, and it has been corrupted with the face of Andre the Giant, who has this lazy look to him. Seeing Fairey's photo I am reminded of not only his signature which is, Andre the Giant.

When it comes the famous "Hope" poster, I do believe that Fairey could have saved a lot of trouble for himself if he had given the credit to Mannie Garcia's Associated Press photo in the first place. When listening to NPR in January, Fairey even says that, "I actually do not know who the photographer is... they have never approached me, my illustration did stylize and idealize from the photo..." (NPR January 2009 ). Fairey states that he obtained the photo off of Google. To me, all these actions point to lucky chance of finding the photo, and unlucky chance of never knowing who the photographer was, so there was no credit given. What needs to be kept in perspective is Fairey was a street artist. He took images that were iconic and recognizable that would be appreciated by the mass public. When it comes to reality, it can be assumed that if Fairey did not use Garcia's photo, no one would have seen it at all. From the NPR interviews and other articles on the internet Garcia took many photos on the same day as the one "Hope" is based on.  

Much of Fariey's artwork takes something that is familiar and changes it. Milton Glaser believes that nothing in Fairey's artwork is substantial and nothing new has been added (Milton Glaser) I highly disagree with this statement. Fairey adds his own style to his images. As shown below to the left is Koloman Moser's 1901 cover for a magazine, and to the right is Fairey's "Nouveau Black", with Fairey's own style. What I find very hard to distinguish is that I think we can all agree that Fairey uses other pieces of work and changes them to his own style, but in the process we revisit where his inspiration came from, and like the original Moser piece below, the art becomes popular again after decades of being forgotten.

Left: Koloman Moser’s 1901 cover for Ver Sacrum magazine. NYTimes.com. Web. 25 January 2014.
Right: Fairey’s “Nouveau Black.” Poster. Web. NYTimes.com. 25 January 2014.

In the subject of the image "Hope", Fairey changes it so it becomes a political image for the people. At the time the image was created, there was a sense of connection by having the first African American president, which was a monumental change in the United States, so it is understandable that a street artist would find this inspirational. Today this happens all the time. A song, jingle, or pun, may become popular from being used in some way, and if it becomes viral is that truly that person's fault? Even if you look at Fairey's "Obey" images being seen around the world and in movies, it became viral, yet he did not have any formal copyrights to it in the beginning of its career.

I do however believe that there have been times when Fairey has approached the line so close that it can be considered crossing over it. Even though I believe the poster "Hope", has become more viral than anyone could have realized, Fairey explains in his NPR interview that besides adding the colors and words to "Hope" all he did to distort the image is change the gaze of where President Obama was looking (NPR Interview February 2009). In my opinion, I believe that since he did not distort the image (as shown below) enough to consider it his own, he should have felt the obligation to give someone the credit for the image used.



Left: Mannie Garcia. No title. Photo. Associated Press. 2006. Web. 25 January 2014.
Right: Shepard Fairey. Hope. Poster. NYTimes.com 2009. Web. 25 January 2014.

Overall, I do understand how it may seem that Fairey is plagiarizing other artists' works, but I still do not believe that Fairey should be considered a crook by any means. For the last 20 years Fairey has used Andre the Giant to promote his artwork, and has changed it various times and ways in order to reach out to the public (Heller 3). I believe that Shepard Fairey is an artist of great talent. 

Reference:
1.) Dooley, Michael. Citizen Designer. Ed. Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne. New York: Allworth Press, 2003. Print.

2.) Fairey, Shepard. Obey: Supply & Demand. Berkeley: Gingko Press, 2006. Print.

3.) Gross, Terry. Interview with Shepard Fairey. NPR: This is Fresh Air. 20 January 2009. Web. 25 January 2014.

4.) Gross, Terry. Interview with Shepard Fairey. NPR: This is Fresh Air. 26 February 2009. Web. 25 January 2014.

5.) Heller, Steven. Shepard Fairey is Not a Crook. Time Magazine. 10 April 2009. Web. 25 January 2014.

6.) Vallen, Mark. Obey Plagiarist Shephard Fairey. n.p. Dec. 2007. Web. 25 January 2014.