Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Obey With Caution (2006) (First Edition)”?
Artist Statement
OBEY WITH CAUTION 2006 Screen Print 18 x 24 inches Edition of 300
Summary
Obey With Caution (2006) (First Edition) is a Shepard Fairey screen print, published by Obey Giant in a first edition of 300 at 18 x 24 inches. Released October 31, 2006 at an original price of $30, it is a 2006 reworking of Fairey's 'Obey With Caution' design, combining the OBEY command with cautionary, warning-style graphic language. The print uses bold flat color and the propaganda-inspired iconography central to the OBEY project, framing the OBEY directive within a visual rhetoric of warning and control.
Why It Matters
The 'Obey With Caution' design distills the central irony of Fairey's entire OBEY project: a command to obey paired with a warning to be cautious, collapsing authority and skepticism into a single ambivalent graphic. This 2006 first edition revisits a concept Fairey had explored earlier (a 2002 version exists in his catalog), demonstrating how he iterates on core OBEY ideas across years. The secondary theme of consumerism and power signals the work's critique of how authority and commercial messaging condition behavior, a recurring concern in Fairey's propaganda-inspired practice. As a first edition of 300 at an accessible $30, it represents the affordable signed-multiple model that built Obey Giant's audience. For collectors, its explicit engagement with the OBEY command makes it a quintessential statement piece for the brand's iconography, more conceptually pointed than many decorative editions. Its Halloween 2006 release date and pre-Obama provenance situate it firmly within the period collectors increasingly value as foundational to Fairey's eventual mainstream ascent.
Collector Perspective
This print is a natural fit for collectors focused on the core OBEY iconography and the conceptual heart of Fairey's project. Its explicit 'Obey With Caution' messaging makes it more of a statement piece than a purely decorative edition, appealing to buyers who value the ideas behind the brand. The 18 x 24 inch format displays cleanly and pairs especially well with the earlier 2002 version and the later letterpress edition for collectors who like to assemble variant groupings of a single design. As a first edition of 300 originally priced at $30, it sits in an accessible tier, making it approachable for collectors building a focused OBEY-iconography wall around Fairey's signature command.
Historical Context
Released on October 31, 2006, this print revisits the 'Obey With Caution' concept Fairey had already issued in 2002, showing his habit of returning to and reworking foundational OBEY ideas over time. It belongs to the Posters and Propaganda era, when Obey Giant produced steady signed editions that doubled as critiques of authority and consumer culture. The design embodies the project's founding ambivalence toward obedience, a theme rooted in Fairey's reading of propaganda and phenomenology. Predating his 2008 Obama breakthrough, it represents the conceptual core of the OBEY brand during the years it was consolidating its visual language and collector base.
FAQ
What is Obey With Caution (2006)?
It is a 2006 Shepard Fairey screen print that pairs the OBEY command with warning-style graphic language, distilling the central irony of the OBEY project into a single ambivalent image.
Is this the only version of the design?
No. Fairey issued an earlier 2002 version and a later 2017 letterpress edition of 'Obey With Caution,' making this 2006 first edition part of a multi-year sequence of the same concept.
How large is the edition and the print?
It is a first edition of 300 published by Obey Giant, measuring 18 x 24 inches as a screen print, released October 31, 2006 at an original price of $30.
What themes does it engage?
Its primary register is core OBEY iconography and propaganda critique, with a secondary theme of consumerism and power, examining how authority and commercial messaging condition behavior.
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.