Surprise!

Haha! Aw but then I'd have to put something new and original in it :P Not that I can't but that'd defeat my point.

Now that I've given my two cents its time for me to sleep, It will be interesting to see where all this ends up, I've just been going back to the original comment and I didn't realise these comments are two years old! Reminds me of my college dissertaion on Warhol and Lichtenstein.

really, one of the best discussions I've ever seen on flickr regarding artwork.

I find it strange that no one speaks of his street work. He is not a fine artist or a commercial artist, he is a street artist.

He appropriates some art, then he appropraites a wall. You think he's worried about giving credit to Lichtenstein when his brush is in hand?

He may have copied some artwork, but at his roots, what he does is criminal.

and I mean that in a good way :)

here all the Obey's "original artwork" as he says

www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm

No comment

No disrespect to anyone here, but I dont understand how the art world has such a problem with Faireys work.

"Oh it's flat out theft".

No, what is theft is drawing a few lines on a page and selling it for a couple thousand bucks.

What's theft is selling a completely white canvas for millions.

If that's art, then so is this!

Well, about copy...everyone take "inspiration"
What I disagree it's just to take a poster...write "obey" and say "original artwork".

Well unless the photo is cropped in the book it looks like there was quite a lot more to it than simply copying it and writing Obey...

Shepard is a white-bread silver-spoon-fed kid from sunny college-town San Diego, who would wheat paste his Obey Xeroxes in strategic spots, just in time for ASR, to increase his chances of industry people noticing his rad concept of "phenomenology", or whatever the hell he claims to have invented. The message behind his so-called art still remains a mystery to me, as well as the cryptic meaning behind his mission statement that was clearly written by someone else. He hides behind a publicist that tells him to ignore the FUCT “thing” - that eventually it will go away. I have been in contact with more than a few journalists who have tried to open THAT door, and were simply given the cold shoulder. One Swindle employee was indirectly fired for trying to bring up the subject. If you look at Shepard’s body of work, it is quite obvious to see that he brown-nosed his way into the magazines, art galleries & shops. You can google his photo at the drop of a dime (what REAL street artist would want his face so recognizable if he was making REAL damage to public property. Banksy sure as hell stays out of the spotlight…). A 400 page self-published vanity book DOES NOT justify the relevance of one's crusade to become the "world's most famous sticker-bomber" WITHOUT a cause.

I was a huge SF fan untill I discovered the extent of his "appropriations." As it turns out, the elements of his art I was most drawn to aren't his at all.

There is no excuse for this level of plagiarism. None.

It's truly, truly disappointing.

www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm

some people obviously dont know the difference between being influenced by art and stealing from art. if they want to fund plagerism more fool them.

In response to your above quote, Id like to quote Mark Vallen from a fantastic article (here)
"Some supporters of Shepard Fairey like to toss around a long misunderstand quote by Pablo Picasso, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." Aside from the ridiculous comparison of Fairey to Picasso, there’s little doubt that Picasso was referring to the "stealing" of aesthetic flourishes and stylings practiced by master artists, and not simply carting off their works and putting his signature to them."
See how I credited the source? It isnt a difficult thing to do!

Curran's arguments are particularly eloquent and iamanerddotnet has done his research and also makes his points quite well. I feel bad that you two are having such a hard time convincing people of your view.
Speaking as someone with formal art training I couldn't agree with you both more. I can only hope that those of you who are stubbornly and ignorantly rooted to the opinion that Fairey isn't stealing unscrupulously never have any sway in the art world.

How anybody could attempt to defend this is beyond me

Wholesale design theft is what shepard fairey practices, adding a sound-bite here and a logo there but generally stealling the WHOLE image/design idea.

Real artists may steal a logo here or sound-bite there but practice using their own image/design idea. ,

All of shepards fans are either lazy kids that dont give a rats ass about originality/history or they are supporters who have jumped on the bandwagon and see opportunity like Jeffery Dietch...or are just so unsophisticated they just shrug their shoulders and say "so what, it's cool, I like it"

This is just marketing/products...nothing more nothing less...

I enjoy the street art pathos and the idea of free communication...but if what being presented are vacant images that speak of ideas that have already been spoken WHO CARES IT'S BORING!!!

you are all so wrong!....it does not matter what pieces he takes...he puts them all in a new frame and that is what its about...just the fact that he puts it on the street..is revolutionary- he is quoting..its the same with hip hop music they constantly use old funk and jazz samples its a form of sampling. he is a great artist cause of his selection and the form of spraying his work.

"One important thing to acknowledge is that Fairey is not just appropriating, but also copyrighting images that exist in our common history. Posters and graphics made in the heat of political struggles are often made by anonymous individuals or groups that want to keep the images in the public domain for use in further struggle. It is unfortunate that Fairey is attempting to personally capitalize on the generosity of others and privatize and enclose the visual commons (as seen by the prominent copyright symbols on his website and products)"

www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm

My name is dawn ineson, i have BFA from NSCAD in Fine Art and Art History, and it my educated opinion that Fairey's a douche.

there couldn't be an obey revival movment because there's nothing original about obey images, they would all be traced back to some other influence.

I totally agree with you! Just like when this guy named Baxter Orr took Fairey's Andre The Giant Obey image, put a gas mask over and the caption "Protect" to make a social commentary about SARS viru- OH WAIT, i guess in this one case it wasn't ok because Shepard Fairey called the dude a parasite and hit him with a lawsuit if he continued to profit off the image. This is exactly what Fairey does, the only difference is Fairey takes obscure images that he hopes most people forgot about while this guy took an image that he knew everone else would recognize as not his own but he didnt care because he was fitting it into a new context to send a message- you know, making art, the same way they do in hip hop when they sample a famous funk song, right? only it wasn't ok this time because it was happening to shepard fairey and not someone else. if Moser had an army of corporate lawyers he might have hit Fairey with a cease and desist, also.

@ steve rhodes
I totally agree with you! Just like when this guy named Baxter Orr took Fairey's Andre The Giant Obey image, put a gas mask over and the caption "Protect" to make a social commentary about SARS viru- OH WAIT, i guess in this one case it wasn't ok because Shepard Fairey called the dude a parasite and hit him with a lawsuit if he continued to profit off the image. This is exactly what Fairey does, the only difference is Fairey takes obscure images that he hopes most people forgot about while this guy took an image that he knew everone else would recognize as not his own but he didnt care because he was fitting it into a new context to send a message- you know, making art, the same way they do in hip hop when they sample a famous funk song, right? only it wasn't ok this time because it was happening to shepard fairey and not someone else. if Moser had an army of corporate lawyers he might have hit Fairey with a cease and desist, also.

As an observer who just stumbled upon this image and had a hell of a fun time reading through all the comments (previously I was unaware of Fairey or his work, though I had seen the Obama HOPE poster.) I can speak nothing for the character of the guy as I have little knowledge of the man or his activities outside of the art itself. Here's what I think after looking at his work and reading through your various comments:

The fact that this level of debate over his work exists lends creedence to the viewpoint that it is of artistic merit.

His work is almost entirely unoriginal. It is borrowed, copied or "stolen," then remixed into what could be viewed as uninspired trash. Yet somehow his work is gobbled up by the masses and he has become highly successful.

Does this not lend insight into the nature of ideas and the power of marketing in human society? Does this not illustrate that people can be made to "obey" through propaganda--or even through a mockery of propaganda? Does it not suggest that trends in human society are based in nothing more than whimsical variations on trends that have come before?

My 2¢.