Some folks decided to clean some graffiti off some Shepard Fairey street art somewhere. Fecal Face has this to say:
Can’t help but think how many people used to think what an eye sore Obey Giant was back pre Obama poster days… Lady, you’re cleaning graffiti off graffiti. It’s like taking the pianist and double bass out of a jazz trio because the drummer is famous.
Ha! Read the whole story.
so there can be no aesthetic judgment between different graffiti? If you like any street art, you must say that all of it is equally good? This is more like telling the kid in the school band he can’t play with Max Roach because it’s just out of his league.
I would just tell the kid that Max Roach is dead.
Thank you Brillo – you nailed it.
Well, I find no enlightenment in the linked article.
Because, particularly, SOME folks habitually equate tagging with graffiti. That is to say, alibiing the particular by referencing the general.
I can’t define art, but I will know it when I see it.
Heya, that’s great! Glad to see some tagger crap cleaned up to reveal the artwork it was defacing!
Fairey is a hack whose most important work has been in the area of merchandising.
Sez you.
THEY LIVE
While Fairey is not really a “hack”, he isn’t technically a graffiti artist. He was commissioned by the City of Philadelphia to make 3 murals, one of which was recently defaced and then cleaned by that lady in the picture. He got permission from the city to glue a bunch of posters he printed at home on the wall of a cafe. And while it is not specifically addressed in the graf hierarchy(throw ups over tags, pieces over throw ups), it’s fair game to paint a throw up over a wheatpaste, cause that shit ain’t graffiti.
Also he is famous for taking notable pictures, stylizing them with different colors, printing them out at home, and gluing them to walls. He is paid to produce low quality art “to order”, often with a short deadline. So by definition, he is indeed a hack.
Interesting.
However, here, on a planet we like to call Earth; Fairey is one of the most meaningful artists working today.
Fairey? Meaningful? Pop culture references sure are timeless and meaningful huh?
Well, leaving aside the fact that most of his work is NOT centered around pop-culture phenomena…
Yes. Pop Culture is still culture. In fact, you know what would be great, if there were already some sort of term for Art that is centered on Pop culture. Huh. Man, what a world that would be.
Oh. Wait.
I still fail to see how pop culture references make Fairey “one of the most meaningful artists working today.” He appropriates his work from other artists without permission, but when someone parodies his work he threatens to sue. He tries to be a street artist while actively working with corporations for ad campaigns. That is a lot of hypocrisy that is inaccurately dismissed as irony.
His work is at least visually pleasing, as I would expect from anyone who graduates from RISD, but it is quite boring and generic. It is also nothing novel at all.
Fairey steals way too much from other artists without acknowledgment (i know, redundant) and because most of the viewing public hasn’t seen the originals he gets too much credit. And he doesn’t manually recreate or improve the art he steals, he just uses a machine to scan what he wants to take and then ads a flourish. If it was a term paper he’d be expelled.
It’s not even clear if he can draw.
one thing I’ll never get about Philly as a city is that they constantly cater to the whole syndrome of being a stepchild of other major cities without acknowledging their own local talent. I’m sure someone from 1026 could have done something more interesting, more in tune with Philly and a lot cheaper than commissioning someone like Fairey slap up some more of his “brand” which is just an updated version of shit he was giving away for free 10+ years ago.
Anybody, and by anybody I mean ANYBODY, can throw up bubble letters, a tag or a US Postal label. Shepard Fairey does work that is at least interesting to look at. While technically it might not be graffiti it is definitely a form of art. Hack or not he is well known world wide and as far as street artists go he’s probably second to Banksy in notoriety. SPDi?? Never heard of him or her.
Graffiti costs the City $3.7 Million a year. That could help a lot of people. In my book that makes taggers some self centered, selfish assholes.
i’ll take a spain throwup over a fairey wheatpaste anyday