Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Hendrix”?
Artist Statement
HENDRIX Screen Print 18 x 24 inches Edition of 300 $30
Summary
Hendrix is a 2004 Shepard Fairey screen print published by Obey Giant as a first edition of 300, measuring 18 x 24 inches and originally priced at $30. The print depicts the rock musician Jimi Hendrix in Fairey's flat, high-contrast portrait style. It belongs to his recurring series of music-figure portraits, rendering a legendary guitarist in the graphic, poster-influenced vocabulary he applied across his mid-2000s Obey Giant editions. As a first-edition 18-by-24 screen print in an edition of 300, it reflects the accessible, widely distributed format characteristic of Fairey's prolific 2004 output.
Why It Matters
Hendrix honors Jimi Hendrix, an enduring icon of rock and countercultural music, within Fairey's broad project of translating musicians into emblematic graphic portraits. By rendering Hendrix in the same flat, high-contrast style he used for hip-hop and punk figures, Fairey folds rock's pantheon into his unified visual language, an act of homage rooted in his own deep musical sensibility. The first edition of 300 and original $30 price kept a portrait of a globally beloved artist accessible at release. For collectors, music-subject Fairey prints are perennially popular because they bridge fine-art collecting with passionate fan bases, and Hendrix's stature gives this image broad cross-generational appeal. It appears to align with Fairey's consistent use of portraiture to elevate music figures with the same iconographic seriousness he brings to political subjects. Within his catalog, the print is a clear, legible example of his music-portrait throughline rather than a one-off. Its significance rests on that crossover resonance and on Hendrix's lasting cultural weight, which makes the image both a design object and a tribute to a foundational musician whose legend endures across decades.
Collector Perspective
This print appeals to collectors at the crossroads of art and music, especially rock fans drawn to Jimi Hendrix's legacy. Its broad, cross-generational recognition makes it one of the more universally appealing subjects in Fairey's music run. At 18 x 24 inches in a first edition of 300, it frames cleanly and anchors a wall of Fairey musician portraits. Its accessible original price made it a popular acquisition, and it fits collections organized around music, portraiture, or the 2004 Obey Giant run. Display impact is strongest among other Fairey music prints, where the uniform portrait treatment turns individual figures into a coherent pantheon, with Hendrix providing an instantly recognizable, crowd-pleasing focal point.
Historical Context
Hendrix dates to 2004 and belongs to Fairey's series of music-figure portraits issued under Obey Giant during his Posters and Propaganda phase. Throughout the early-to-mid 2000s, Fairey, whose sensibility runs through punk, rock, and skate culture, repeatedly translated musicians into his flat, high-contrast graphic style, building a recurring visual pantheon. This portrait of Jimi Hendrix, who died in 1970, fits that pattern of cultural homage to foundational figures. The era follows Fairey's formative street-art period, rooted in the late-1980s Andre the Giant campaign, and precedes his 2008 national breakthrough. Within his arc, the print documents the music-portrait throughline that runs alongside his political and brand-driven output across genres and generations.
FAQ
Who is depicted in this print?
The print depicts the rock musician Jimi Hendrix, rendered in Fairey's flat, high-contrast portrait style. It is part of his run of music-figure portraits and falls under his Collaborations and pop culture themed output from 2004, published by Obey Giant.
What are the size and edition?
It is an 18 x 24 inch screen print published by Obey Giant as a first edition of 300. That standard format and edition size match Fairey's mid-2000s music portraits, keeping the work accessible while remaining a defined limited edition.
What was the original price?
The source lists an original price of $30, reflecting Obey Giant's accessibility-first release model. That low entry price helped Fairey's music portraits reach a broad audience of both art and music fans at the time of release.
What medium is used?
The work is a screen print, the technique behind most of Fairey's Obey Giant editions in this period. Screen printing produces the flat color fields and bold graphic contrast that define his iconographic portrait style.
Related Works
About the Artist
Shepard Fairey (b. 1970, Charleston, South Carolina) is an American street artist, graphic designer, and activist, and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His 1989 “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker grew into the global OBEY GIANT campaign — an ongoing experiment in propaganda, obedience, and visual culture. He reached worldwide recognition with the 2008 “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama, now held by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Across screen prints, stencils, murals, and collage, Fairey channels propaganda aesthetics toward themes of peace, justice, environmentalism, and civil rights. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and LACMA.