Shepard Fairey + The Obama Poster (Boing Boing)

Boing Boing Video: http://www.boingboing.net/boing-boing-video/

One year ago, Boing Boing editor David Pescovitz blogged a cool new "socialist-realist" style poster created by street artist Shepard Fairey for the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Today, January 20, 2009, Obama will be sworn in as President of the United States.

Sean Bonner and I visited Shepard's art gallery in LA some weeks ago with Boing Boing's video team to talk with Shepard about how this image came to be. We also wanted to know what the past year has been like for the artist most of us here on the blog previously knew as "The Andre The Giant Has a Posse Guy."

The moment we walked into the space, Shepard had picked up a call on his cellphone, was staring intently into space, and uttering a lot of thoughtful "mm-hmmms." When he hung up the phone, he turned to us and smiled. I asked who he'd been on the phone with, and he explained the call was from Obama's staff, telling him for the first time that an adaptation of this same poster would be used as the official inauguration poster.

Inauguration day has come, and with it, the beginning of a new era in America. I don't know what this era will bring. I don't know what kind of president Obama will be. But I hope we achieve what Shepard's poster said: progress.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Art
• Shepard
• Fairey
• Barack
• Obama
• Obey
• Hope
• Progress
• Poster
• inauguration
• president
• politics
• obey
• giant
• andre
• the
• has
• posse
• obeygiant

[dirtypaper]

i love that poster, but i reminds me of those communist propaganda posters.

[glorp896]

I think one of the main reasons it became so iconic so fast is due to NOT knowing shepard, due to much of his stuff having a cynical tone, anti-political by exposing some political history by using some of their own propaganda poster techniques...

When i first saw the obama thing i was confused, knowing it was shepard, or a knock off, and wondering why he might be making fun of obama? but then i looked harder and even the color scheme isn't some jab, but dignified the man in the shep way

[WritersofRioGrande]

A great piece of Propaganda. As art it's fantastic. A fantastic facade. The Obama Joker poster is more in tune with reality.

[TehAWAL]

@nevomusic fuck you blind asshole

[TonyFbaby87]

@nevomusic LOL your such an idiot! LOL

[TonyFbaby87]

@nevomusic You are a fucking dumbass. The leader of the free world is a communist? Are you fucking stupid?

[NeggerKock]

fuking magnets man, how do they work?

[piglet4457]

@gmonet46 yes he can in fact he very good

[globalron]

@dirtypaper - that's because it is.

[boogiekook]

too bad he pretty much copied another picture and got screwed by copyright...