Shepard Fairey Arrested In Boston

BOSTON — A street artist famous for his red, white and blue "Hope" posters of President Obama has been arrested on warrants accusing him of tagging property with graffiti, police said Saturday.

Shepard Fairey was arrested Friday night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff event for his first solo exhibition, called "Supply and Demand."

Two warrants were issued for Fairey on Jan. 24 after police determined he'd tagged property in two locations with graffiti based on the Andre the Giant street art campaign from his early career, Officer James Kenneally said. One of the locations was the railroad trestle by the landmark Boston University bridge over the Charles River, police said.

Fairey, 38, of Los Angeles, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Brighton District Court, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney. Wark said Fairey would also be arraigned on a default warrant related to a separate graffiti case in the Roxbury section of Boston.

Fairey has spent the last two weeks in the Boston area installing the ICA exhibit and creating outdoor art, including a 20-by-50 foot banner on the side of City Hall, according to a statement issued Saturday by the museum.

The museum said Fairey was released a few hours after his arrest. Boston police confirmed Fairey had been released, but did not know exactly when or the amount of his bail.

A man who answered the phone at Fairey's Los Angeles studio, Studio One, declined comment.

"Shepard Fairey was completely unaware that there were any warrants for his arrest. Had he known, he would have resolved all such issues before the opening of his art exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston," his attorney, Jeffrey Wiesner, said in an e-mail.

Fairey has been arrested numerous times for drawing on buildings and other private property without permission.

His Obama image has been sold on hundreds of thousands of stickers and posters, and was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington before Obama's inauguration.

The image is the subject of a copyright dispute with The Associated Press. Fairey argues his use of the AP photo is protected by "fair use," which allows exceptions to copyright laws based on, among other factors, how much of the original is used, what the new work is used for and how the original is affected by the new work.

A California lawyer who has represented Fairey in the copyright case didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the arrest.

Comments

[hidflect]

AP are bollocks anyway. Their news is majorly nothing more than summated PR missives from powerful corporations and lobbyists. They're No.1 critical concern seems to be never to report anything that could cause offence and threaten their market reach. See their milquetoast reporting on G@za as an example.

[doc]

Fairey's art is completely real and entirely respectible. If you disagree with this than you obviously have only seen the most commercial of his works (obama, colbert, ect). Go look up some of his art before you bitch about how much of a hack he is.

[bewildered ronin]

Actually, I have his other work. All of his works consists of images, verbatim, lifted from other sources. He has said this before. He calls it "referencing" and "appropriating" these images. His more popular images (as you cited, Obama, Colbert) are merely laziness, using vector illustration in the simplest manner possible. There's nothing wrong with simple vector shapes, but when you are tracing an image and producing something that can, honestly, be done within an hour, I find that lazy. His use of other works, again verbatim lifting the exact images, that is no longer being inspired or referencing anothers work, it is stealing their work.

And it's not just me that feels this way. Did you read what I posted from Milton Glaser? You can ignore me all you want, but Glaser makes a great point. Even if Fairey's work is not "technically" plagiarism, one does get the feeling from looking at his work that "something is not right."

[bewildered ronin]

* I have seen his other work.

[rmc53x]

THOSE WHO CAN, DO
THOSE WHO CAN'T DUCHAMP

[bewildered ronin]

Fairey is a hack. The Obama poster can be done in a few seconds using Illustrator's Live Trace. That Colbert image in EW? Same thing. Even if he were doing it by hand (looking at the line paths being created, I doubt he is) it could be done within 5 minutes.

Fairey's whole idea of "referencing" is a complete joke. It's called "ripping-off:" Fairey takes entire design concepts, copies them, tweaks a few minor details, and then presents it as his own creation and profits from it. This isn't being "influenced" by a piece, it is blatantly stealing entire concepts. Defenders of Fairey will cite Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein (I'm a big fan of Lichtenstein). There is a huge difference, though.

Warhol's famous reproduction of that Marilyn Monroe photo was done by hand. The photograph was so iconic and well known, that it was certainly incredibly famous well before Warhol got a hold of it. Roy Lichtenstein recreated panels from comic books. Lichtenstein did this originally as a dare from his son. He later continued because he began to see comic illustrations as actual art, and wondered if reproducing them, using traditional media and being displayed in traditional settings, if people would consider it art. Lichtenstein actually did wonders to get comic book illustration to be recognized as a real artistic form. He also did those huge recreations by hand.

[bewildered ronin]

Fairey uses Illustrator, a computer vector program. Illustrator has this wonderful feature called Live Trace. Using Live Trace, you can convert a "raster" image (pixels) into vectors (geometrical points and lines that can be enlarged or shrunk without degrading image quality). You can also import a raster image and then trace it by hand using several different tools. Neither of these processes are labor intensive. As I said before, the Obama and Colbert (in EW's top 100) can be created within under an hour. Fairey also doesn't use widely known sources for his works. He uses obscure political art pieces, often stripping away all original impact or meaning and transferring it's meaning into self-promotion.

Some might think my differential of "hand done" vs "Illustrator Live Trace" as trite, and you're certainly welcome to that view. But, yes, I do see that as a major difference. It is very different when you compare tens to hundreds of hours of work and preparation to something that can be produced within a matter of minutes.

Irregardless of whether you agree with my view or not, Milton Glasser addresses the issue of Fairey's "referencing" very poignantly.

[bewildered ronin]

GLASSER: The process of looking back at the past is very accepted in our business—the difference is when you take something without adding anything to the conversation. [...] But imitation we have some ambivalence about, especially because it involves property rights. [...] We know that in other cultures, Chinese culture for instance, imitation is seen as a tribute, because you wouldn’t bother imitating trivial works. But in those cases the influence is acknowledged and the skill required is obvious.

For myself—this is subjective—I find the relationship between Fairey’s work and his sources discomforting. Nothing substantial has been added. In my own case, when I did the Dylan poster, I acknowledged using Duchamp’s profile as an influence. I think unless you’re modifying it and making it your own, you’re on very tenuous ground. It’s a dangerous example for students, if they see that appropriating people’s work is the path to success. Simply reproducing the work of others robs you of your imagination and form-making abilities. You’re not developing the muscularity you need to invent your own ideas.

One of the things that really bothers me is Fairey’s use of the famous Swiss photo of a woman’s head. [...] It’s just too close to the original observations of the photographer. It doesn’t seem clean to me. The distinction between these things is ambiguous, but when we look at it we feel, “Something is not right.”

[gamoonbat]

Shepard rocks. Make that city shine! The criminal justice system has the bad demeanor.

[NObey]

I think what makes people mad is the that he has been arressted over a dozen times for something that would send a ghetto youth to prison for up to a year. On the ObeyGiant site Shepard has posted videos showing him and his crew running from cops and speeding off in a get away car. In one video they came very close to people when speeding off. They risk lives doing this and Obama supports it? Why is that not being reported? Why does Obama endorse something that costs billions per year to clean up? He does support it because he sent Shepard a thank you letter telling him to keep up the good work and putting art on stop signs and other places.

[lunarmagpie]

http://www.banksy.co.uk

[bewildered ronin]

I don't care about that. Some graffiti is amazing to look at. Look at any European graffiti magazine and try to tell me those people have no talent. Meanwhile, what we have in the USA with "tag kiddies" is pretty pathetic. (lunarmagpie is a good example)

The thing with Fairey is that his entire portfolio is based off of ripped off design concepts. Nothing in there is original. It's all stolen goods that have been tweaked and arranged just enough so as to avoid copyright conflicts. It's lazy and pathetic.

As an artist and graphic designer, I feel that Fairey is spreading the wrong message. That it's okay to completely steal resources as long as you change it a little bit. It shows a complete lack of creativity and individuality.It's not being "influenced," it's "stealing resources." Why bother being creative when you can get famous by floating along on other people's creativity?

[NObey]

I meant ask questions. The people outside had some answers though. :)

[NObey]

Fairey was arrested on his way to dg at an after party. People are missing out that he was there for the opening earlier that day and did a question and answer session with a curator. The crowd was not allowed to answer questions. The infringement allegations were not even mentioned. See here, http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2009/02/shepard-fairey-dodges-criticism-at-ica.html

[lunarmagpie]

Mark Vallen, is that you? You really need to let this go, it's only making YOU look bad...

[bewildered ronin]

It's hardly just Mark Vallen that has a problem with Fairey. Milton Glasser had some not-so-nice thoughts about Fairey and his forms of "referencing."

http://www.printmag.com/design_articles/MiltonGlaseronShepardFairey/tabid/492/Default.aspx

Fairey's work is crap. His Colbert image? It's called Live Trace.

[Aranxa]

And try finding a cop in downtown Boston when you need one. I'm sure Fairey is grateful for the free publicity the boys in blue got him.

[greatlakesgirl]

Pathetic waste of resources. Why do this when graffiti is everywhere and police usually tags it as not part of their job description. Total waste of taxpayers dollars.

[messy]

"Shepard Fairey was completely unaware that there were any warrants for his arrest...."

Bullshit! He's been spraypainting his "OBEY" signs over everything for years and years. Being a famous artists doesn't give you the right to break the law with impunity.

[miltonista]

shepard is laughing all the way to the bank... with his army of semi-useful idi... consumers.

fairey is well-designed hypocrisy.

[lunarmagpie]

http://www.banksy.co.uk

[readmewell22]

A pure waste of police man hours!!!!

[OkayWhatNow]

The opposing views about Shepard Fairey tagging a wall, are hilarious to me.
I guess the side I'm on says: If you painted on my property, I want it paid for to be removed/ painted over. Go paint on the outside of your own damn building thank you very much.

If you're so for it, go call him up, and have him create art your property. You just better hope that you like it, and agree with whatever message it puts out there.

But let's all face it, he knew what he was doing when he did it.
And stop acting like he got arrested for the Obama picture, yes, he did a good job there. I'm seriously doubting he painted that in these areas that got him arrested.

[Mari X]

First of all, nobody has charged Mr. Fairey with defacing PRIVATE property. No need to get all possessively territorial, Okay.

Shepard Fairey is a PUBLIC artist. He posts his work on public utility poles, taxpayer owned properties and, upon invitation, on the walls of public buildings. Some private parties in Boston have also invited him to poster their personal holdings. The new House of Blues is one of them.

Don't be afraid of a little public art, Okay. Okay?

[Veritas 1]

Give me a break! Public art? What gives him the right to tag taxpayer owned property? I pay taxes, can i go around and spray paint all the post offices and government buildings? No! I am sure all the "artists" will contend that it is perfectly alright to paint utility poles because they are drab and art makes the world more beautiful or some other bullshit. In truth, however, most of these people are just juvenile and selfish. If your commissioned to paint something on somebody's property, by all means go ahead. If you do it for whatever other reason, then be prepared for the consequences.

[zipp123]

I have seen some of his work and although he is a great artist, he should not be defacing any property without permission. And even though he may not be doing this on PRIVATE property, like you say, he is doing it on things that TAXPAYERS have PAID FOR. Why should we have to pay for these things to be painted over, fixed, or replaced? There are more important things that tax dollars need to go to. He got arrested for a reason, it is against the law to vandalize someone else's property. He should ask permission before doing these things. I'm sure anyone would love for his work to be done on their property, but a approval before would be greatly appreciated. :)

[zipp123]

Agreed! :)

[Three Four Five]

Coleman Cedes Ground, Suggests that Franken Should Add Additional Rejected Absentee Ballots:

http://voteforamerica.net/editorials/Comments.aspx?ArticleId=209&ArticleName=Coleman+Allows+Franken+Latitude

[buzzcowboy]

I have to wonder whether Fairey's adventurous history of sending C&D's will be regretted by a legal team that might have otherwise claimed fan imitation for the "public works"... http://blog.cafepress.com/2009/02/09/the-copyright-and-the-copycat/

Note to the guy in Seattle who painted the Obama image on your garage: start looking up "fair use" case law.