Profile for Ellogoods - Rip Off Artist Shepard Fairey (?) you be the judge

Ellogoods aka Robb Donker Curtius has been a member since November 30, 2008, has scored 3,596 submissions, giving an average score of 2.69, helping 57 designs get printed.

URL: http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=229627&

Feb 20 '09 by Ellogoods
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Rip Off Artist Shepard Fairey (?) you be the judge

I first became aware of Shepard Fairey when I lived in South Orange County, California and I would see the Obey stickers defacing public property. Not only stickers but spray painted faces ironically shot with stencils by skate kids from privileged families that were trying to be graffiti artists.
They didn't have the decency to at least actually free hand paint graffiti, ha- they used stencils for god's sake. Well apparently Shepard Fairey cannot paint either or draw or anything.
I am sure this is old news but in light of the Obama poster / AP flap I did some poking around and found a great article about Shepard:

Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey

Check it out- it pretty much disgusts me how he utilizes other peoples art and imagery and CONCEPTS / IDEAS and adopts them as his own. what an absolute tool. Guerrilla artist my ass - more of a guerrilla opportunist.

Check out my latest sub: PK

squatterjohn on Feb 20 '09 at 8:00am

Yeah, I don't think too much of his "art" or his attitude. He'd be quite cool if he just admitted he was tracing stuff and if he got permission to do it first, but he's got a bad attitude and thinks the rules don't apply to him.

The Obama Hope picture for instance is a great, iconic image. It was quite obviously based on a photograph and that's fine, but he couldn't be bothered asking for permission to use it first. I'm sure he would've got it, or found a similar photo. Maybe he'd have had to pay a small fee. I'm sure he could afford it. But now he's being sued.

Bramish on Feb 20 '09 at 8:04am

I never realised how much of his stuff is 'borrowed'.

I went to an exhibition in London and there was some great looking stuff, but I wonder how much was original.

Ellogoods on Feb 20 '09 at 9:34am

I too cut him slack until I saw this link and others that show him to be a complete plagiarist. The thing that bothers me is that he has used artists works outright- not adapting a work or being inspired by it but just taking it.

But what really frost me is that the link shows how his concepts are lifted as well.

TheInfamousBaka on Feb 20 '09 at 9:39am

Wow... that's a lot of ripping off. At one point I defended him saying that it's acceptable to use a photograph as reference in some cases (especially if you ask for permission, like with stock photography), but this is absolutely ridiculous. Guess I should have done my research before trying to defend him. What an ass.

Ellogoods on Feb 20 '09 at 10:01am

The funny thing is that he threatened a lawsuit against a guy who created a parody of his obey design:

http://animalnewyork.com/news/2008/04/shepard-fairey-threatens-to-su.php

Simpletinrobot on Feb 20 '09 at 10:10am

Did you know that the baby from the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind album is interning with Fairey and his group?

true story!

Ellogoods on Feb 20 '09 at 11:45am

I did not know that Simpeinrobot- that is a trip.

toopersent on Feb 20 '09 at 11:50am

wow, this is a nice informational tidbit. thanks!

Edword on Feb 20 '09 at 12:03pm

that link is notoriously bias.

If you want to read a counter to that check out this.

http://www.supertouchart.com/2009/02/02/editorial-the-medium-is-the-message-shepard-fairey-and-the-art-of-appropriation/#more-15477

Yeah the guy pulls from all over the place but to act like what he does takes no skill or talent is ridiculous. You can spot a SF wantable a mile away.

Ellogoods on Feb 20 '09 at 12:49pm

I will check that out Edword and I have not ever contended that Shapard is without talent I just feel he should get permission to use the images that he pulls from- (unless, of course, they are in the public domain).

bcrider on Feb 20 '09 at 1:18pm

Wowwww... I didn't have much of an opinion one way or another, but now that I've checked it out, he's a pretty massive tool.

bcrider on Feb 20 '09 at 1:22pm

Um, and after looking at Edword's link, I think Shepard's skilled, yes... but I still wanna bean him with a ripe banana. And not because I'm jealous of his talent. I think he's being a poop.

Edword on Feb 20 '09 at 1:32pm

His best skill has been spinning a career out of a joke sticker. The guy was just a stencil artist with a great eye for images. Truly his biggest talent is as a businessmen and being able to walk a tightrope of street artist, fine artist and commercial artist, a very rare feat.

Ellogoods on Feb 20 '09 at 5:28pm

He may be talented but he definitely is not a skilled artist-

sure Andy Warhol did a lot of painting of tomato cans but prior to that he had a career as a commercial artist.

Even beat makers who take other people samples and make them their own have to give credit and payment to those they sample from.

Ellogoods on Feb 20 '09 at 7:53pm

Edword- the supertouch article was a good interesting read but clearly is a biased piece and I suppose the article calling Shapard a plagiarist is biased the other way.

The main point is that Lichtenstein or Warhol who copied icons of the time, whether it be Mickey Mouse or a Campbells Tomato soup can did it out in the open. Everyone new they were copying iconic images to make a statement. They were painting their interpretations of iconic images whereas Shepard reproduces them almost verbatim and he also utilizes non iconic images so us as the viewer have no reference point. We assume that his creation, (like the black panter party member) is created by him because the pic was not a famous one, (like Mickey Mouse). Shepard should just acknowledge the references he lifts. He should at least do that.

22 days later

Ellogoods on Mar 15 '09 at 11:01am

???

squatterjohn on Mar 16 '09 at 2:33am

I saw this book the other day.

I immediately recognised the Fairey image and my first thought was to turn the cover over to see if he was credited. He was, it is right that he was. But I think the makers of this book have done the right thig by getting permission from Fairey which is something he doesn't do, which is something of a double-standard. The photographer or AP is not credited and Fairey has used the oppurtunity to promote himself through two websites. You can use the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon to see it for yourself (back cover.) He didn't extend the courtesy to the original photographer either to give permission or to promote his own work.

olie! on Mar 16 '09 at 2:41am

whoa. . . yeah I usually play devil's advocate when a bunch of people shout plagiarism, but after looking at that site it's pretty hard to deny that a lot of those were ripped off. . . you make a good point about how he doesn't make people aware of the source materials he's using. . . good link, very informative!

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