What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Mark Of The Giant (First Edition)”?

Artist Statement

MARK OF THE GIANT Screen Print 18 x 24 inches Edition of 100

Summary

Mark Of The Giant is a 1997 screen print by Shepard Fairey, published by Obey Giant in a First Edition of 100, measuring 18 x 24 inches on paper. The record places it under collaborations/pop culture with secondary OBEY iconography, indicating it foregrounds the Andre the Giant / OBEY mark at the heart of Fairey's early project. As one of many editioned screen prints from his late-1990s studio output, it belongs to the cohort that codified the OBEY visual identity. Source detail is limited to title, medium, dimensions, and edition size.

Why It Matters

Mark Of The Giant sits squarely in the 1997 wave of Obey Giant screen prints that consolidated Fairey's iconography, and its title points directly at the 'mark' or brand-image logic underpinning the whole OBEY enterprise. The record's OBEY iconography tag signals that this print is about the symbol itself, the recurring face and star that Fairey deployed as a study in propaganda mechanics and the manufacture of recognition. With an edition of 100, it is a limited early piece whose scarcity follows from the print run, not merely from its date. For collectors tracing how the OBEY identity hardened into a repeatable visual language, this title is a useful node: it names the very act of marking that the project explored. Because the source description is sparse, claims about specific imagery should remain cautious; what is firmly grounded is the 1997 date, the screen-print medium, the 18 x 24 format, and the edition of 100. Its importance is best understood collectively, as part of the early iconographic build-out, and its appeal rests on completeness within an early-OBEY collection plus the limited edition size.

Collector Perspective

This print appeals to collectors focused on Fairey's core OBEY iconography and the early 1997 Obey Giant editions. The title's emphasis on the 'mark' makes it a thematically clean pick for anyone documenting how Fairey's brand-image became a deliberate motif. At an edition of 100 it is relatively scarce among early works, and the 18 x 24 format frames and groups easily with its 1997 contemporaries. Because the source offers little visual description, the date, OBEY-icon focus, and small edition are the dependable points to lead with. It fits a chronological collection built around the emergence of the OBEY identity.

Historical Context

Published by Obey Giant in 1997 in an edition of 100, Mark Of The Giant belongs to Fairey's early studio-edition era, when the OBEY campaign was producing a steady stream of screen prints centered on the Andre the Giant face and star. Its secondary OBEY iconography tag and its title align it with the project's foundational concern: making a mark recognizable through repetition. It sits in the same 1997 cluster as its related early prints, a period of prolific output that established the visual vocabulary Fairey carried into later decades. As a small-edition early work, it documents the formative codification of the OBEY identity.

FAQ

Related Works

Soldier Star1997 · Same 1997 year, edition of 100, and early OBEY iconography cohort.

Giant Glow (First Edition)1997 · Contemporary 1997 first-edition Obey Giant print centered on the Giant image.

Andre (Giant Beatles)1997 · Shares the Andre/OBEY iconography this 'mark' print foregrounds.

Giant vs Giant2004 · Later work that continues exploring the Giant mark as motif.

Black On Black1996 · Adjacent early Obey Giant edition from the project's formative period.

Join The Posse1997 · 1997 Obey Giant pop-culture print from the same production wave.