A major figure of the contemporary street art movement, Shepard Fairey rose to prominence in the early 1990s with his “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” campaign, which distributed posters, stickers, and murals featuring the eponymous wrestler around Providence, Rhode Island. Fairey’s iconic 2008 “Hope” campaign poster for President Barack Obama encapsulates a number of the artist’s recurring concerns, including propaganda, portraiture, and political power. Fairey’s work, which has sold for six figures at auction, can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
This print, created during the Iraq war, is an alternative phrase inspired by popular 1960s anti-war mantra, “Make love, not war.” In this case, Fairey asserts the need for creative rather than destructive acts. The Art Nouveau style of the image is an additional reference to the influence of Art Nouveau on hippie and psychedelic art of the ‘60s, including many anti-Vietnam war posters.
Encased within a floral garland, the female figure appears more self-assured and real rather than ethereal. The placement of two paintbrushes below her portrait not only refers to a classical tool of art production but resembles spears, which when read alongside the directive to “OBEY” that appears on her neck, simultaneously makes the otherwise palatable message more pointed.
– Shepard
