Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Compassion (His Holiness The Dalai Lama) (Second Edition)”?
Artist Statement
To celebrate and support the upcoming 10th edition of Art for Tibet, Shepard Fairey is releasing a new colorway print of an image of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, that he created based on a photograph taken by Don Farber 12 years ago. Each print is numbered and signed by Shepard Fairey. This is a limited edition run of this print, only 500 will be printed and sold. The prints are 18 x 24 inches and are silkscreened on Thick Cream Speckle Tone Paper. 100% of proceeds will go to Students for a Free Tibet.
Summary
Compassion (His Holiness The Dalai Lama) is a 2022 Shepard Fairey screen print depicting the Dalai Lama, based on a photograph taken by Don Farber twelve years earlier. Measuring 18 x 24 inches, it is silkscreened on thick cream Speckletone paper in a numbered, signed edition of 500. Released as a new colorway to support the 10th edition of Art for Tibet, the work renders the spiritual leader in Fairey's signature portrait style. According to the source, 100% of proceeds went to Students for a Free Tibet. The piece pairs a calm, reverent portrait subject with Fairey's bold graphic treatment and decorative framing.
Why It Matters
This print sits at the intersection of Fairey's portrait practice and his long pattern of using art to fund advocacy. By rendering His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Fairey applies his recognizable graphic vocabulary to a globally revered figure of nonviolence and compassion, extending a body of work in which he has portrayed leaders and cultural icons. The source notes the image derives from a Don Farber photograph and was released specifically to support Art for Tibet's 10th edition, with 100% of proceeds going to Students for a Free Tibet, making the work as much a benefit object as a collectible. For collectors, the combination of a benefit cause, a named photographic source, and a relatively contained edition of 500 gives the piece narrative depth beyond decoration. It demonstrates how Fairey uses portraiture to direct attention and resources toward causes he supports, a recurring thread across his career. The cautious read is that its importance is moderate within his catalog: it is a colorway release rather than a debut image, but its tie to a specific anniversary edition and charitable structure gives it durable interest among collectors who value the cause and the subject.
Collector Perspective
This print appeals to collectors who value Fairey's portrait work and those drawn to the cause behind it, including supporters of Tibetan advocacy and admirers of the Dalai Lama. The 18 x 24 inch format on cream Speckletone paper is wall-friendly and works well in a portrait-focused grouping or alongside other Fairey benefit prints. Buyers attracted to works with a clear philanthropic story will appreciate that the source states 100% of proceeds went to Students for a Free Tibet. As a signed, numbered edition of 500, it offers entry-level accessibility relative to Fairey's larger or rarer releases, while the named photographic source and anniversary tie-in give it collecting context. It fits naturally into a Portrait Series collection or a thematic grouping of Fairey's compassion and peace imagery.
Historical Context
Compassion belongs to Fairey's contemporary period of benefit-driven editions, where his portrait practice repeatedly serves causes he supports. The source ties it directly to Art for Tibet's 10th edition and to Students for a Free Tibet, situating it within his ongoing use of art as advocacy funding. The image's reliance on a Don Farber photograph taken twelve years prior reflects Fairey's established method of building portrait illustrations from existing photographic source material, a technique central to his work since the Obama-era portraits. As a 2022 release issued as a new colorway, it represents the iterative, cause-anchored output of his mature studio period rather than a foundational early image. Its place in his arc is that of a reverent portrait benefit print, extending the portraiture and advocacy threads that run throughout his catalog into a specific Tibetan-rights context.
FAQ
What is the edition size of Compassion (His Holiness The Dalai Lama)?
Per the source, this is a limited, signed and numbered edition of 500. Each print is numbered and signed by Shepard Fairey, and the listing states that only 500 were printed and sold as this new colorway release tied to Art for Tibet.
What image is this print based on?
The source states that Fairey created the image of His Holiness the Dalai Lama based on a photograph taken by Don Farber twelve years before the 2022 release. Fairey rendered that photographic reference into his graphic portrait illustration as a new colorway.
Where did the proceeds go?
According to the source, 100% of the proceeds went to Students for a Free Tibet. The print was released to celebrate and support the upcoming 10th edition of Art for Tibet, making it a benefit edition tied to that cause.
What are the print's size and materials?
The source lists the print as 18 x 24 inches, silkscreened on thick cream Speckle Tone paper. It is a screen print published in connection with Art for Tibet and signed and numbered by Shepard Fairey.
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.