Obey: Supply & Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey
by Shepard Fairey
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Book Summary Information
Author: Shepard FaireyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-07-01
ISBN: 1584232447
Number of pages: 360
Publisher: Gingko Press
Book Reviews of Obey: Supply & Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey
Book Review: Hopefully Emek Will Follow Suit
Summary: 5 Stars
A few years ago I bought a Judas Priest poster done by a man named Jeff Wood at Drowning Creek Studios for a relatively small sum of money. It was an amazingly satisfying purchase. So, I bought another poster, and then another, and here I am three years later with an inventory of posters for which I've collectively paid the price of a nice SUV. I don't regret a dime of it all, I consider these documents pure treasure.
It is surprising that as I worked my way through the various artists who produce today's rock concert posters I initially missed Shepard Fairey. I guess that is because most of his posters are not really rock concert posters. They are about something else; I'm not sure what exactly. More about that in a moment. Let me say something further about today's rock concert poster scene first, for context.
Jeff Wood. Gary Houston. Michael Michael Motorcycle. Alan Forbes. Firehouse. Psychic Sparkplug. Kozik. Print Mafia. Stainboy. Jermaine. Justin Hampton. Emek. Shepard Fairey. Alphonse Mucha. What??? A non-sequitur, you proclaim?
I think not. While the last of those names was the master artist, if not the outright Founder of the Art Nouveau style, he was first and foremost a poster artist. He made his posters a hundred years ago in a manner not unlike today's generation of rock poster artists who hand-make limited-edition silkscreen posters. The artistic styles vary greatly amongst them, but there is no doubt that today's poster artists are doing some of the most interesting art out there. And, these posters are relatively affordable. You may suffer from the misconception that the sixties was the high point in rock posters. Indeed, there are some fabulous posters from that era; but while today's music has perhaps not kept pace with the music from the sixties, the poster art has reached incredible new levels of innovation and beauty. I can spend a hundred grand (or two) on an original Mucha, or $50 to $200 on an Emek, Wood, or Fairey; hmmm....I think I'll take the latter and use the savings to buy a nice lunch and a house! I think you understand my point. I do believe some of these will reach the rarefied heights of Mucha in due time. They are that good.
So, that's why I've become so addicted to collecting posters by these artists. For moderate sums, one can own astonishing art which will almost certainly increase in value, both aesthetically and in dollars. These posters capture the spirit of our era superbly, better than any other medium I can think of. I'm not aware of anyone painting in oils or sculpting in bronze who is producing anything so exciting. These are not the cheap posters from Tower records of yesteryear. The posters today are on archival papers, often with metallic or exotic inks, they are signed and numbered, and they are otherwise destined for collecting. I'm confident my great-great-grandkids will be fighting over these a hundred years from now.
Now, to the best of my knowledge the absolute Titan of this medium is a guy named Emek. He is stone-cold brilliant, and his posters almost immediately go into the triple-digits ($$) after the initial run sells out. He is prolific, and every one of his posters stylistically varies from its predecessors. Emek is a virtuoso of the highest order. Every ebay auction for an Emek is a veritable feeding frenzy. However, Shepard Fairey also has a staggering following.
"Shep" has a more limited style. He uses a lot of standardized iconic images, such as stars, eagles, smokestacks, mountains, rifles, etc. His posters are definitely derivative of old Soviet-era propaganda poster art. There is an emphasis on "revolution" and similar themes. But his posters are amazingly pleasing to the eye. He uses a lot of reds, blacks, and whites. There is often a nice humorous dimension to his work as well. He uses great paper, and he maintains very high quality control. From what I'm able to tell from my collection of his stuff, he doesn't sign it if the poster isn't perfect.
I'll get to this book in just moment. A few further observations of his art: Shepard Fairey is apparently very obsessed about sending a message of some sort. This is where he loses me. I think I'm familiar with every one of his posters, and quite frankly I can't tell you what his message is at all. I have no clue. "Obey Propaganda"--this is a common theme printed on his posters. I have no idea where he is going with that. "Andre the Giant Has a Posse"--again, I haven't a clue. Perhaps you have to read his book to learn his message. It just seems a little disingenuous to be attempting to send a social message of some type where the message is so obscured and "insider" that you have to be a member of the artist's fan club or otherwise have a decoder ring to figure out what his point is. It seems a little strange to me. Too gimmicky. And, it promptly becomes onerous when a poster artist starts to take himself too seriously as a messenger of truth and righteousness. Fortunately, Shepard Fairey has not gone overboard here, and there is sufficient playfulness and beautiful imagery that the viewer remains quite pleased, most of the time.
Now, the book: in the opening pages he describes his origins as a skateboarder who started doing stickers, and these stickers were intended to be "stuck" all over the same way graffiti artists do tagging. "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" was apparently one of his early stickers, and it supposedly was placed all over the place ("the place" being planet Earth) some years back. Again, I have no idea what the sticker stands for, and I personally think people adhering stickers to public property deserve to be arrested and placed on misdemeanor probation with 26 weekends of picking up trash on the side of the freeway as a term and condition of that probation. Nothing is more wretched to me than a bunch of scuzzy old stickers defiling our parks and public works. So, the origin of Shepard Fairey's artistic career is a little less than enthralling to me.
But, the man is truly an innovative and talented artist. I hope he gravitates exclusively to posters, which I assure you will not be placed haphazardly in public places, because they are increasingly extremely valuable. These things go for astronomical sums on ebay, surpassing Emek's works in price quite frequently. Unfortunately, Shepard Fairey allows people to buy more than one of his posters at the time of release on his website. The posters IMMEDIATELY sell out, and if you want the poster you have to be ready to pay several times more than the reasonable price which Shep initially requests. It is really a bummer. Furthermore, most of Shepard Fairey's stuff never is listed on ebay. People are apparently holding on to it.
This book give a wonderful overview of his works, stickers and posters. It gives good background information on most of his stuff. I hope some of the other poster artists, such as Emek and Wood, will put out such a comprehensive and nice volume of their works. I do wish the book came with a dust jacket. It seems a little "unfinished" to me without one. Shepard could probably publish one and sell it off his website. I think it would be a good idea. But, this book does have a nice binding, great paper, first-rate printing quality, and spectacular imagery. If you are at all into posters, graphic arts, or Mr. Shepard Fairey himself, this is a MUST HAVE.
Summary of Obey: Supply & Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey
Supply and Demand is the book that finally does justice to Shepard Fairey's entire body of work, a massive retrospective covering 17 Years of this groundbreaking artist's prodigious output. Through the lens of esteemed writers and critics such as Carlo McCormick, Steven Heller and Roger Gastman, Fairey's work is seen for all its depth and placed in context as art, design, social experiment and "getting over". This massive book pulls no punches and all areas of the enigmatic artist's work, travels and travails are illuminated; from exhibitions, posters, flyers, silkscreens and stickers to high altitude pursuits, citations and police beatings, it's all documented in a museum quality layout and binding. The evidence is in, and it's clear that Shepard Fairey is not one to rest on his laurels, the work must go on. For both long time fans wanting the complete collection and those just curious to know what this OBEY business is all about Supply and Demand is the answer.Artists, A-Z Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
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- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
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