The Prosecutors Case:
Shepard Fairey Is A Plagiarist
The Reactionary Political Artist
The Appropriate Way to Recycle Art
My Judgement against Shepard Fairey:
Art exists in a continuum. For an artist, the appropriation of ideas from another artist is legitimate, necessary and unavoidable, but stealing the ideas of committed artists, and turning them into the lucrative products of your vanity is piracy, and reveals your colonialist soul. I testify to the fact that you ripped off Rene Mederos, who was a great person/true artist, and you diminished yourself in the process of enriching yourself $$$ You are a bad boy !!!
Dennis | 03-Mar-08 at 6:41 am | Permalink
Don’t give this guy any more air time. Take the U-tube interview off your site!!!
mbumba | 04-Mar-08 at 1:47 am | Permalink
what shepard deserves is to be debunked. for more debunking of phoney artists visit Coagula Art Journal
alex Itin | 02-Nov-09 at 8:05 am | Permalink
I have to think on it.
I don’t have much problem with this approach for his street art. That’s criminal in its very conception… so there is no point quibbling about who “owns” an image as copyright doesn’t apply to a criminal act.
but t-shirts surely are another question…I also doubt he spends much time on the t-shirt end of his business… probably got a bunch of art students chained to desk looking for images to swipe.
mbumba | 03-Nov-09 at 12:21 am | Permalink
Alex: yes, but when u profit from an image made by an artist who was involved in an “authentic” struggle; an artist who did not profit from the reproduction of the work, u have to at least give him props. i like Shepard cos he’s really smart, and i nudge him towards solidarity.