Artist Paints Obama In the Image of Che and Mao, Not Fred Thompson

Is Barack Obama an icon of hope like....Che Guevara? Washington Post reporter William Booth on Sunday celebrated the three-color icon-worshipping Obama posters by left-wing street artist Shepard Fairey. To Booth, Che (the communist assassin) is as cool as Fred Thompson is dull: "All political art is propaganda (that is the point), but most political posters are bland, forgettable, wallpaper, like Fred Thompson on an off day. Fairey wanted something more iconic -- aspirational, inspirational -- and cool. In other words, he wanted to make posters that the cool cats would want. The 2008 Democratic primary season equivalent of the Che poster (with all that implies). More Mao, more right now." His new book is titled "E Pluribus Venom." [Image from Google.]

Booth reports the posters are a smash among Obama-maniacs, who have "gobbled up" 80,000 posters and 150,000 stickers with the images. A poster signed by Obama fetched $5,900 on eBay, Booth added. It can get pricey out there: "Indeed, the Obama campaign liked the posters so much it now sells them via the official campaign Web site store (for $70, and the supply is currently all sold out -- again)."

The poorer of the Two Americas is crushed.

There’s another storyline in here, that the Obama-maniac’s artist of choice appears to be a radical leftist that suggests art in a Soviet style, another Obama associate who would hurt his odd image as a non-ideological unifier:

His Obama posters (and lots of his commercial and fine art work) are reworkings of the techniques of revolutionary propagandists -- the bright colors, bold lettering, geometric simplicity, heroic poses -- the "art with a purpose" created by constructivists in the early Soviet Union, like Alexander Rodchenko and the Stenberg brothers, and by America's own Depression-era Works Projects Administration.

Not only has Fairey done Obama, but works on the walls of his studio and on his Web site include depictions of Sid Vicious, Bobby Seale, Chairman Mao, Noam Chomsky, Emiliano Zapata, Patty Hearst, Vladimir Lenin and Richard Nixon. Though Fairey is quoting revolutionary forms (meaning he is playing with Mao, not endorsing Mao), some observers see his Obama poster and think: reds.

Writers for the Clout column in the Philadelphia Daily News said "the Soviet-style heroic Obama, the use of a single word HOPE" reminded them of George Orwell's "1984" and Big Brother.

"There's an unequivocal sense of idol worship about the image," wrote op-ed columnist Meghan Daum in the Los Angeles Times, "a half-artsy, half-creepy genuflection that suggests the subject is (a) a Third World dictator whose rule is enmeshed in a seductive cult of personality; (b) a controversial American figure who's been assassinated; or (c) one of those people from a Warhol silkscreen that you don't recognize but assume to be important in an abstruse way."

Fairey rummages around on his desk and produces a letter from Obama himself. "Dear Shepard," the candidate writes. "I would like to thank you for using your talent in support of my campaign. The political messages involved in your work have encouraged Americans to believe they can help change the status quo. Your images have a profound effect on people, whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign."

Messages. Images. Effect. Someone understands phenomenology. And the thing about stop signs? "He's kind of endorsing graffiti," Fairey says, "isn't he?"

Fairey is also celebrated in the latest Esquire magazine for his new book.

As a graphic designer, Shepard Fairey has helped market some of the biggest names around: Nike, Zeppelin, Guitar Hero. And with his new book, E Pluribus Venom (Gingko Press, $30), Fairey has taken to branding America’s great national ideals -- capitalism, nationalism, militarism -- with a series of subversive ads. You won’t find much of the clear-eyed optimism of Fairey’s Obama posters (not included in the book), but you will find America.

One of the Fairey posters featured by Esquire is an old drawing of a white policeman with the words "I’M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS AND GET AWAY WITH IT." That's hardly a unifying piece of art. Nor is his anti-war poster with the motto "In Lesser Gods We Trust."