Shepard Fairey Controversy
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- wendog0
The fact that he took old propaganda posters that he didn't create adds to the whole street artist vibe...I don't consider it plagiarism, because he came up with the idea of re-applying those images that he found in a unique way...Also, his techniques of street art add to his own original style - The way he produces his work is just as significant as the work itself...Im buzzed on wine so if this is incoherent im sorry
- BonSeff0
what an extraordinary admission. good grief
- airey0
just as a show of hands, who seriously gives a fuck?
if you really, truly do, what about the thousands, if not millions of similar rip-off artists that don't make a living from doing so? are you against the fine-line that denotes 'copying, homage, inspired-by and ripp' or against him making some bank doing so? obviously this is an intellectual property issue but is this the case only if someone makes serious coin? if so, why let them get away with it for all the years earlier when they did it for noting but insane voices in the head?
just asking as a matter of discussion.
- eieio0
If his work is supposed to be some sort of creative appropriation then why isn't he more upfront about the sources and that context? seems like the appropriated nature of his work is always second to his name and his brand. In the street art scene people like him are considered sellouts and posers.
- the term 'sell out' seems to weaken every year.airey
- I think it means a million times more in this day and ageeieio
- you must be young. 15 years ago a musician or artists wouldn't have their stuff used on ads at all.airey
- now almost every advert has a backing track by a muso that somehow retains cred.airey
- the term has weakened massively these days or at least evolved somewhat.airey
- this is why it means more. Wtf happened to people's principles? Punk must be dead.eieio
- Point50
this is a big deal because the subject matter was a big deal; and the original photograph is possibly owned by a large company; and he flat out lied when asked about where he drew the source image from. Now the dominoes are falling.
- airey0
i like his stuff and i also agree he should be less 'head up arse' in relation to where the original intent came from. reading that article i guess it's 'smoke 'em if you got 'em, we're goin' down' territory.
do you think his work will be more or less 'legit' after a few months of sexual assault in a minimum security prison?
- ukit0
I never saw the hype about his work. I don't think it's hating to say that, because I don't really care one way or the other, but I always thought it was weird that he got so much attention.
There are plenty of kinds of art where sampling from others work could be viewed as legitimate, but with SF is always seemed like a dumbing down, mass market version of whatever he was borrowing from, never any real twist to it or insight.
Basically what he is is a really good marketer/ business guy.
- eieio0
i don't understand why he didn't just make his own portrait of obama, its not hard to simply reference a photo and change it
- juhls0
His work used to be better. Not saying it was the greatest stuff, but it was "new" for some people. Now it's horrible. He takes images from within his older posters and makes them into posters. Then sells them. Rinse. Repeat. There is hardly an effort now.
- I liked his stuff circa 97-98, when I worked in downtown San Diego, and his Obey/BLKMRKT posters were everywhere.DRIFTMONKEY
- ukit0
I think this shows how the "copyright" racket actually works though. For a while Fairey was the hot new kid on the block, and the objections of people who said he ripped their work were kind of tossed to the side, because he was rich/successful enough to not care. You could make an argument that he was sampling/ appropriating/ etc but there's no doubt that what he did was technically "illegal" in some instances.
Then he made the mistake of messing with a dog bigger than himself, and now you see the result. But that doesn't make it any more right that the AP can bring Shepard to his knees with a lawsuit than it was that he could make a living and become famous off the works of others.
- DoktorDavid0
I had the good fortune of seeing Fairey's work at the show in Boston this past August and then seeing some of Rauschenberg's and Motherwell's in New York the next day. If Fairey owes anyone some props these two guys will suffice. What Fairey has been doing (and doing pretty well for a number years) is playing with easily accessible material and then applying his own particular point of view and technique to convey the image he wants us to experience. Sometimes it is cropped, flipped and augmented then serigraphed; sometimes it is via spray paint and stencils; sometimes through a shit load of xerography and wheat paste and lord knows what else. This is not plagiarism - this is collage.