Shepard Fairey, success

Conflating a violation of criminal law with artistic jealousy is specious. Unless you are arguing that the Boston Municipal Code was written by jealous artists? Also, please provide your home address to your readers. I have made some art that I think is pretty good, so I'm sure you'd like to see me plaster it all over your house. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Fairey is an unoriginal hack. Steals others images, photoshops some colors over it, fashions it slight as early 20th century socialist propoganda poster...and walla genius!? Hardly.

The fact 'some' actually defend the guy is appalling...ethically and artistically.

It is amazing. But, keep in mind those who seem to compete for who can be the meanest are self-selected. Go and ask 20 people you know what they think and you probably won't get one with such a negative point of view. But I wish we could, for once, have a competition for who could write the most appreciative comment about another person.

Tiny-brained angry people are the sign that an artist has made it.

Decorating other people's property or public property as you see fit and at your whim is illegal and should be regardless how much some other person may enjoy the message or the imagery. The individual's right to the peaceful enjoyment of their property supersedes talent. As it always should.

This is an outrage. I love graffiti.... Mr. Faierey used populist colors and socialist themes to praise a presidential candidate. His art took to the streets, as I have witnessed lots of it here where I live. He in order to market is art posted it illegally on the streets. The risk was jail. This is the law! I hate the law --- but I know of plenty of graffiti artists who have paid the price. Now there is outrage of some alleged political reasoning! Absurd. Mr. Fairey took a picture of his holiness and altered it without the photographers permission. Then he made thousands on it, and when asked for their cut, acted like it was his art! It was partially his, the artist, photographer who took the picture, deserves his cut! Faierey should enjoy his time in jail.

As many artists before him have!

Arrested 14 times? Another "artist" trying to make a point? Maybe I should post this comment on the Whole Foods near my house. That's credibility.

This is an outrage. I love graffiti.... Mr. Faierey used populist colors and socialist colors to praise a presidential candidate. His art took to the streets, as I have witnessed lots of it here where I live. He in order to succeed posted his art on the streets. The risk is jail. This is the law! I hate the law --- but I know of plenty of graffiti artists who have paid the price. Now there is outrage of some alleged political reasoning! Abused. Mr. Fairey took a picture of his holiness and altered it without the photographers permission. Then he made thousands on it, and when asked for their cut, acted like it was his art! It was partially his, the artist, photographer who took the picture, deserves his cut! Faierey should enjoy his time in jail.

As many artists before him have!

This is WAY off your point, but it interests me to see you refer to some boston.com/Globe readers as "simple-minded." I've long been amazed by the ugliness and stupidity and racism and general ick cropping up in posts all over boston.com, amid many sane voices of course, but I don't usually see Globe writers jabbing back. I can't put my finger on it yet, but for me there's something disquieting about all this venting, all round.

Because he's a subversive commie and Massachusetts isn't as liberal as you think

Don't you have any real criminals in Boston for the police to arrest?

Its ultimately a better message from Shepard Fairy than we find on billboards of greedy companies advertising they're shit and brainwashing americans in believing that they should take more than what they need.

Let the juducial process follow its course. Whether he is guilty of vandalism or not is up to a judge or jury to decide, based on how the law defines vandalism. Whether he is a talented fellow, or a humanitarian or was standing next to the mayor or could have been arrested earlier or could have been arrested somewhere else or has been subject to unfair criticism on a boston.com blog is not relevant.
A vandal is a person who commits what the law defines as vandalism, even though the person may love animals and give alot of money to charity etc.

"When people find success, other people get angry"
"Most of them seem to be angry, politically-inspired and simple-minded"

Interesting statements, considering the official story on his arrest is:
"Police allege that he tagged locations in the Massachusetts Avenue and Newbury Street area and the railroad trestle by the BU Bridge, said department spokesman Officer James Kenneally."

Talk about red herrings - people are angered by his "success"? Hardly. The responses are "simple-minded"? Ah, artists, the ultimate insiders and keepers of the priesthood. Only they are wise enough to "get" the value of his "work".

I find it amusing when vandals are supported by the "truly cultured" by calling them "graffiti artists". Property damage is, for some bizarre reason, justifiable when the priesthood considers it "art".

Spare me. It's criminal, and it looks like crap. If you think it's so special, let him come tag the outside of your home.

The timing of this arrest is, I agree ridiculous. The Boston Police obviously have too much spare time if they have the time and energy to drive to try to disrupt the evenings event because they personally dont like the artist. Did they first try to resolve the issue (whatever it was) by contacting Shepard or the ICA. If they spent the time they did scheming against Shepard into trying to improve their dismal homicide closing rate, they might be respected by the citizens of Boston and people might have come to their side when the city announced they were laying off officers.

I totally agree with the author that the timing, that the police chose specifically to not tell Shepard that they had issued warrants and to arrest him right as he was about to play, is suspect. It seems they wanted to flex their egos, since they have taken a lot of flack for their poor policework lately and seem to spend more time arguing for detail and overtime than solving crimes.
However, I think the fact that many comments on boston.com were negative towards Shepard is more reflective of the demographic of people who comment on boston.com (cranky old conservatives) than the general view of people in Boston-the show sold out weeks ago.

Vandalism is vandalism. If it's public property and you don't have permission to deface it, don't. Some people might not appreciate your "art" and they have just as much right to that public property as you do.

I went to the ICA experiment party and saw his exhibit last night. I wasn't terribly impressed. His art is devoid of all meaning save for a weak anti-war message in some of them. Perhaps there was some meaning back when he was in college and started the "obey" Andre the Giant campaign but that was undermined when his art became a commercial commodity itself. He has been compared to Warhol but the difference is Warhol took advertising and corporate images and showed us how they can be art. Fairey on the other hand, steals images from activist groups, strips them of their meaning and trivializes them and turns them into corporate images used to sell prints, stickers and T-shirts.

To top this all off he didn't show up because he got arrested and I want my $20 (cost of the ticket) back.

I agree with this writer. It was amazing to see all the hatred that was spewed from the comments when the arrest was announced this morning. I doubt that any of these people took the time to take a closer look at the impact this artist had made in our culture.

With that said, you break the law you pay the penalty. No one is above the law. But is this man a risk to the community at large. Were there other methods to resolve this issue? I can only think of the police resources used just to embarrass the museum and this heralded artist. What you don't realized is that you have now made this man and his message front page news. You have validated this artist's message about pervs authority. Once again you have blown it way overboard.

Word.

Shephard Fairey is a respected artist....I saw his exhibition at the ICA on Friday...surely we have more important things to monitor than a well intentioned and amazing artist speaking to the public in his unique artform. All this time and money to arrest him? I hope all this ridiculous obsession with his "illegalities" keep spreading his message and bring more and more of the public aware of him and of the wonderful ICA.

I think Shepard has done some excellent work, and I enjoy much of what I've [just recently] seen by him. However, I think most people who have posted in favor of his arrest are posting against the arrogance of illegal acts of vandalism. To destroy someone else's property because you consider it art is the ultimate in arrogance. I find it ironic that Geoff Edgers drew his own subjective line about what is art and what is graffitti. The spray painted profanity he describes as graffitti could easily be considered art - a true emotional expression of a suffering individual in the urban jungle. So is it Geoff Edgers who gets to decide for everyone else in the city of Boston what is and what isn't art? And is it Geoff Edgers who gets to decide which people or businesses should have their rights revoked so that the artists he chooses can get to ignore the law and spray paint whatever he decides to be art? The issue is not whether or not Shepard is an artist or whether what he produces is art - it's whether he has the right to take away other people's rights by spray painting on their property. It seems those displaying all the vitriol against the people who are simply supporting upholding the law have some misplaced anger of their own to work out.

are you people nuts. the whole thing is a scam. look at the big ad on the boston.com home page. surprise! go see this guys 'art'. the whole thing is a scam. are you all so dumb to fall for this??

Dale, it's not 'walla' it's 'voila'.

The cawps say that Sheppard Fairey is nawt an aahtist!

if you have to use political jargon to uphold your argument, it must not have been very good in the first place

I have one word to say about this arrest and issue, mooninites. It really is amusing to see how a major city such as Boston sees, handles and deals with street "vandals". In other cities this would be nothing more than passing dissention but here it must be made example. They must try tostamp it out eradicate these nuisances but only after what it would appear to having served there agendas. No news is good news and bad news rules the roost.

When "graffiti" is jugded by its content, they call that censorship.

Hey, anybody who's critical of Shepard Fairy should know that this guy does more for charities than any other artist out there. Shepard gives away 30% of his work. And if you don't like his art, fine, but the man himself is an original, rare, masterpiece. He's a REALLY big-hearted, generous guy. So lighten up, you uptight jealous losers. And I think spread the word to keep vacation money from Boston.

I actually think Shepard Fairey is, indeed, to be admired for his commitment to his art - it's just that his art happens to break the law. It seems only appropriate, therefore, that he be arrested; it seems, indeed, that it's necessary to his artistic practice. Sorry, but I don't quite see the way out of this conundrum, particularly as it has been revealed that most of his tagging is based on other people's imagery. Thus the art is not interesting in and of itself - he hasn't come up with new, striking art to communicate his political ideas. It's the way he re-purposes other people's stuff that is of interest. And crucial to that interest is the illegality of said re-purposing; it's the violation of civil norms that makes it cool and edgy. Now that he's famous, however, this internal contradiction in curating him can't be ignored; if we don't arrest him - that is, if we make an exception for him because he's famous - then we're left facing the fact that he's just an aging, but still fairly hot, skaterboy pasting up other people's art on other people's property while the police look the other way. (And how is that cool or edgy?) You can see that we have to arrest him, or the whole "outlaw street artist" thing collapses, and suddenly he's just another advertising executive playing air guitar in the corner office and calling himself a rebel. His arrest is actually necessary to the completion of his artistic project, and the maintenance of his persona. I'm sure he realizes this. I just don't understand why the Exhibitionist doesn't.

I must say that I had conflicting feelings about this guy. No, I think it's wrong to be scribbling on what is NOT your property, but I thought the man had talent. The image looks good, and there are others that have floated about since he became "famous." (I'm NOT a fan of scribbles on other's property. It shouldn't be too hard to find a place that wants images on their walls. Is anyone here familiar with the Middle East's mural, at Central Sq.? The club wanted it there!) But...ok, let's see. Then, I find that the guy is making his images to sell on T-shirts. Hmm... if he is selling T-shirts and making money off of that, why deface public property? He's getting his message out. And wait a minute...if he is so counter-culture, and leftist, why is he so briskly selling the stuff? Finally, given the AP lawsuit, I read some more, and found that the guy's been stealing other artists' images. (Not just the AP photographer's!) Fairey sounds like a fake to me. Thus, I agree that he should go off paint his copied images on his own place, and leave the rest of us be. When he got nabbed on opening night, well, the timing seems suspect, sure. Unfortunately I think this is going to make some hero out of the fake. Dude,"obey" your professed counter-culture!

An Austin, Texas, artist named Baxter Orr made a parody of Fairey's Andre the Giant design, adorning it with a SARS mask and the title "Protect Yourself." Last April, Fairey mobilized his legal team to send Orr a cease and desist order threatening legal action against him. The Austin Chronicle has the details. They quote Orr: "It's ridiculous for someone who built their empire on appropriating other people's images," he said. "Obey Giant has become like Tide and Coca-Cola.
Dan Wasserman February 6, 2009 Shepard Fairey: OBEY my lawyers

You are just another of the "elite" media who have shown their willful ignorance of art. Coloring in someone else's art is is not brilliant or progressive, and it should be illegal. I can't wait until Karma comes back to get your hero Shepard!
"This artist is known for his generosity of spirit and humanity"?
Give me a break. Anyone who has questioned the ethics of this CORPORATELY FUNDED HACK has been attacked by the "artist" himself for being "jealous" or "lazy." So I guess there are hundreds if not thousands of lazy jealous artists out there (some of whom have had some fame themselves, even before this plagiarist came along)...well, I would rather be "jealous" and "lazy" than a phony and a hypocrite.

all you people are idiots instead of sittin there talkin crap about him why dont you get up and try to change the world atleast hes doin somthing everybody wants to change the world buts to scared to do anything you say he was doin somthing illegal it wasnt illegal did he spraypaint it on a biulding no did he come to your house and spraypaint it no so why cant you just leave him alone all he did was follow his dream even if he did do somthing illegal at least he did it he had enough guts to do it cause he had a plan he new what he needed to do to change the world so until you have a plan to change the world shut the hell up