What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Crowd 2”?

Artist Statement

CROWD 1 / CROWD 2 Screen Print 18 x 24 inches Edition of 100 For the propaganda series, I wanted to create symmetrical images that could be spread across two posters horizontally. Since I could only print 18 x 24" images by hand, I wanted to make larger images—diptychs—that could cover more space. It also saved money, because I could make just one piece of film for the image, print it, then flip the film for the mirror image but cut out the type so it wouldn't read backwards. Essentially, I got two posters for the price of one.

Summary

Crowd 2 is a 1997 screen print published by Obey Giant in a first edition of 100, measuring 18 x 24 inches. It is the right-hand half of the Crowd 1 / Crowd 2 diptych. Fairey describes designing symmetrical images that could be spread horizontally across two posters; constrained to printing 18 x 24 inch images by hand, he made one piece of film, printed it, then flipped the film to produce the mirror image, cutting out the type so it would read correctly. The result is a propaganda-styled, money-and-power image of a crowd that could be tiled to cover larger wall space.

Why It Matters

Crowd 2 is notable both as imagery and as a documented window into Fairey's hand-printing method. His own description, preserved in the source, explains how he engineered the Crowd 1 / Crowd 2 diptych to overcome the size limits of hand-pulled screen printing: a single piece of film, printed and then flipped to create a mirror image, yielding two posters economically and a larger combined field for street application. This makes the work a clear artifact of his early propaganda-series problem-solving, where production constraints shaped the visual concept. Thematically the source ties it to consumerism and power, with theme signals of propaganda and money, situating it among his critiques of crowds, commerce, and control. The 1997 date and first edition of 100 place it in his formative Obey Giant period. Its importance rests on this documented technique and theme rather than on any pricing or market data, which the source does not provide.

Collector Perspective

Crowd 2 attracts collectors who value process and concept as much as image, since the record preserves Fairey's own account of how the diptych was engineered. It is most compelling displayed alongside Crowd 1, where the mirrored composition completes as intended and the consumerism-and-power theme reads fully. Collectors building a foundational Fairey holding will appreciate it as a 1997 edition of 100 with documented artist commentary, which adds context many prints lack. The 18 x 24 inch format frames conventionally, and the pair tiles into a wider field for a statement wall. It fits naturally within a grouping of his late-1990s propaganda-series works.

Historical Context

Crowd 2 belongs to Fairey's 1997 propaganda series, made during the formative Obey Giant period when he was producing editioned screen prints by hand. His preserved description shows him working around the technical ceiling of hand printing 18 x 24 inch images by building horizontal diptychs from mirrored film. This reflects the street-poster origins of his practice, where covering wall space efficiently mattered. Thematically it extends his interrogation of crowds, consumerism, and power that runs through the propaganda series. Within his arc, Crowd 2 documents the ingenuity of his early production methods and stands among the works that established his propaganda-inspired graphic language before his later prominence.

FAQ

Related Works

Crowd 11997 · The companion half of the Crowd 1 / Crowd 2 mirrored diptych.

Propaganda Industries2001 · Continues the propaganda-and-commerce critique in a later print.

Wreath2001 · Shares the consumerism-and-power theme with this work.

Obey Van (First Edition)1997 · Same-year early Obey Giant first edition from the propaganda period.

Obey Air2000 · Related Obey-branded propaganda print extending the power-and-commerce motif.

Website1999 · Adjacent late-1990s Obey Giant first edition in the same body of work.