Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Nixon Stamp Poster (First Edition)”?
Artist Statement
Signed and numbered edition of 200. 18 x 24 inch screen print.
Summary
Nixon Stamp Poster is a 2001 Shepard Fairey screen print published by Obey Giant in a signed and numbered first edition of 200, measuring 18 x 24 inches. The work frames former U.S. President Richard Nixon within a postage-stamp motif, combining the iconography of official state imagery with Fairey's propaganda-poster aesthetic. The stamp framing treats Nixon as a state-sanctioned icon, using flat color and bold graphic structure drawn from the OBEY visual system. It is a mid-size early-period screen print typical of Fairey's Obey Giant studio output around 2001.
Why It Matters
Nixon Stamp Poster is notable for fusing two propaganda formats, the political portrait and the official postage stamp, to comment on how states canonize their leaders into trusted icons. By placing Nixon, a figure synonymous with authority and institutional mistrust, inside a stamp, Fairey draws a pointed line between government imagery and the manufactured authority his OBEY project critiques. The source explicitly states this is a signed and numbered edition of 200, one of the few records in this group to confirm a signature, which adds a documented authentication detail collectors value. As an early Obey Giant work, it sits in the formative period when Fairey was sharpening the political portraiture central to his later fame, and it pairs directly with the companion Nixon Poster from the same year. Within his catalog it connects to other stamp-format works like Mao Stamp, forming a recognizable sub-thread. The result is a conceptually layered, documented, signed and numbered early screen print that gives collectors a clear example of Fairey using official state formats to question power.
Collector Perspective
This print appeals to collectors focused on Fairey's political portraiture and early Obey Giant period, with the added draw of a source-confirmed signed and numbered edition. The Nixon-on-a-stamp concept anchors it in American political and propaganda iconography, making it a strong fit for collections built around power and state imagery. It pairs especially well with the companion Nixon Poster and with the Mao Stamp for a focused stamp-format grouping. At 18 x 24 inches it frames easily and carries strong graphic presence. With a documented signed edition of 200, it offers a moderately scarce, well-authenticated, thematically rich entry into Fairey's early political work.
Historical Context
Nixon Stamp Poster belongs to Fairey's early Obey Giant studio era around 2001, when he was extending the OBEY propaganda aesthetic toward identifiable political subjects and official state formats. Wrapping Nixon in a postage-stamp motif reflects his interest in how governments canonize leaders into trusted icons, a critique rooted in the OBEY project's late-1980s origins. The work belongs to a stamp-format sub-thread that also includes earlier pieces like Mao Stamp, and it sits among a 2001 cohort of Obey Giant releases that increasingly treated authority, governance, and power as central subjects ahead of his more overtly political mid-2000s output.
FAQ
What does Nixon Stamp Poster depict?
It frames former U.S. President Richard Nixon within a postage-stamp motif, combining official state imagery with Fairey's propaganda-poster style. The 2001 work treats Nixon as a state-sanctioned icon through the OBEY visual system.
Is this print signed?
Yes. The source record states it is a signed and numbered edition of 200, making it one of the few works in this group with a confirmed signature. It measures 18 x 24 inches and was produced as a screen print.
Is there a companion Nixon print?
Yes. The 2001 Nixon Poster shares the same subject and edition cohort. The two make natural companions, and the work also connects to the earlier Mao Stamp through its postage-stamp format.
How scarce is this work?
With a stated signed and numbered edition of 200 it sits in a moderately scarce tier. The source does not confirm availability or sold-out status, so this reflects documented edition size only, not current market supply.
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.