What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “POW(ER)”?

Artist Statement

Here is a brief explanation of the POW(ER) print. I was asked by my longtime friends at PAPER magazine to guest edit their art issue. I gladly accepted, and the issue should be out later in Nov. In the issue my friend and PAPER editor Carlo McCormick, who wrote an essay for my book “Supply And Demand”, wrote a fantastic essay about the evolution of visual culture from Pop Art to street art, and the impact of the internet and media saturation. To illustrate Carlo’s essay I created the POW(ER) image. The image is an homage to influential Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein, who appropriated and re-painted comic frames often transforming them in meaning and context. I have often described my art as a fusion of Pop Art, street art, and political art. I utilize the platform created by Pop Art, but I try to take my work even more directly to the people. Like Pop artists before me, I utilize a vocabulary of familiar cultural visual references. In fact, after I conceived of the POW(ER) image and did some further research on Lichtenstein, I discovered an image he had made of a woman holding a can of spray paint or hairspray. The image looked familiar to me, because a few years ago I re-illustrated the same piece of clip art that Lichtenstein referenced for his spray paint/hair spray painting. The connection was was too serendipitous to ignore and I proceeded to create the POW(ER) image. For me, street art has always been about populism and emPOWERment. The recent embrace of street art in the art world as a legitimate genre demonstrates the power of accessible, relatable imagery, and in many ways builds upon the triumphs of Pop Art. Check out the PAPER issue when it comes out to read Carlo’s excellent essay. -Shepard 18 x 24? Screen Print Signed and Numbered Edition of 450. $45. Limit 1 per person/household. Release Date: 11/04/2010

Summary

POW(ER) is a 2010 Shepard Fairey screen print, 18 x 24 inches, in a signed and numbered first edition of 450, released November 4, 2010 at $45 with a limit of one per person or household. Fairey created the image to illustrate an essay by PAPER editor Carlo McCormick for the magazine's art issue, which Fairey guest-edited. The work is an homage to Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, who appropriated and repainted comic frames. Fairey describes street art as being about populism and 'emPOWERment,' fusing Pop Art, street art, and political art in a familiar comic-derived visual vocabulary.

Why It Matters

POW(ER) is a self-reflexive print in which Fairey openly positions his work within the lineage of Pop Art, paying homage to Roy Lichtenstein, who appropriated and recontextualized comic-book frames. The source note is unusually candid about Fairey's method and philosophy: he describes his art as a fusion of Pop Art, street art, and political art, using a vocabulary of familiar cultural references to take the work 'directly to the people,' and he reads street art's art-world acceptance as a continuation of Pop Art's triumphs. There is even a documented serendipity, Fairey discovering that he and Lichtenstein had independently re-illustrated the same piece of clip art, which prompted the image. Created to illustrate Carlo McCormick's essay on the evolution from Pop Art to street art for a PAPER issue Fairey guest-edited, the print carries an editorial and art-historical context that makes it a statement piece about Fairey's own place in visual culture. For collectors, that conceptual transparency, plus the comic-pop aesthetic and the affordable original price, make it a meaningful entry in his pop-culture catalog.

Collector Perspective

This print suits collectors interested in Fairey's relationship to Pop Art and his Lichtenstein homage, as well as those drawn to comic-derived, graphic pop imagery. The documented backstory, illustrating Carlo McCormick's essay for a PAPER art issue Fairey guest-edited, plus the clip-art coincidence with Lichtenstein, gives it strong intellectual appeal and conversation value. At $45 with an edition of 450 it was one of the more accessible 2010 releases. The 18 x 24 format frames easily and pairs well with other pop-culture or OBEY-power themed Fairey prints. It fits a collection organized around Fairey's pop-art influences or his consumer-and-power motifs.

Historical Context

Released in November 2010 through Obey Giant, POW(ER) sits at the intersection of Fairey's editioned print practice and his editorial work, created to illustrate an essay by Carlo McCormick for a PAPER magazine art issue Fairey guest-edited. It makes explicit his long-stated fusion of Pop Art, street art, and political art, and his homage to Roy Lichtenstein roots it in mid-century Pop appropriation. The discovery that he and Lichtenstein had referenced the same clip art underscores his career-long engagement with recycled commercial imagery. The print exemplifies Fairey's reflection, in this period, on street art's growing legitimacy within the art world.

FAQ

Related Works

Obey Megaphone2010 · Same 2010 release year and shared populist emPOWERment and OBEY messaging.

Obey Windmill2009 · Adjacent OBEY-themed pop-culture work from the surrounding period.

Propaganda Engineering (Large Format - 20 Year Retro Series Set)2009 · Connects to Fairey's reflection on propaganda and appropriation that POW(ER) examines.

Riot Cop (Large Format - 20 Year Retro Series Set)2009 · Part of the retrospective pop-and-propaganda grouping in his catalog.

Corporate Violence For Sale2011 · Shares the consumerism-and-power critique theme adjacent to this release.