BARACK OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN USE OF SHEPARD FAIREY'S HOPE

154 Pages·2013·4.1 MB·English

SOME CALL IT SUBVERSIVE: BARACK OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN USE
OF SHEPARD FAIREY’S HOPE
_______________
A Thesis
Presented to the
Faculty of
San Diego State University
_______________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in Art
with a Concentration in
Art History
_______________
by
Sarah Elizabeth Mitchell
Spring 2013

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Copyright © 2013
by
Sarah Elizabeth Mitchell
All Rights Reserved
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DEDICATION
To my mother, who instilled a love of the arts in me; and to my father, who proofed
and edited every page. To my little sister who provided a constant source of encouragement
and inspiration; I hope I can provide the same on your upcoming graduate journey. Finally,
to Hank and Molly for always being my cheerleaders.
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ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS
Some Call it Subversive: Barack Obama’s Campaign Use of
Shepard Fairey’s Hope
by
Sarah Elizabeth Mitchell
Master of Arts in Art with a Concentration in Art History
San Diego State University, 2013

Shepard Fairey’s 2008 poster Hope has become the most widely seen and iconic
image of President Barack Obama. This thesis examines the formal stylistic elements that
informed the aesthetics of Hope and the socialized interpretations these styles and symbols
had on the voting electorate in 2008.
Spreading virally through the Internet, Fairey's image adorned websites, stickers,
posters, and billboards, all functioning to disseminate the man and the message; critically
impacting the campaign. Appropriating the Associated Press photograph of Mannie Garcia
and historical styles, Fairey created an icon and set into motion a grassroots movement that
elected the forty-forth president of the United States.
The thesis begins with an introduction to literature relevant to understanding the role
of image in society. It is reasoned that in an era of mass consumption there is merit in
examining the social conditions and historic processes that contribute to the image’s appeal.
The review investigates how knowledge is produced, visually across Hope, in the context of
2008. Chapter three traces the appropriated historical styles in Hope connecting the image’s
reference to a grass-roots production to memories or notions of social movements of the past.
The history of street art is traced to the origins of graffiti and is shown to inform Hope’s
subversive image. A review Obama’s use of new media technology and the Internet augment
a discussion of the candidate’s advertising and marketing strategies. The combined study of
historical references in Hope and a survey of its use as a piece of viral marketing demonstrate
how art is absorbed into the economic and political arena. Finally, the consequences of
centering the candidate’s image over platform issues is shown to divert audience attention,
crowding out a pertinent discussion of political realities and political issues. The study
demonstrates how images influence the results of elections and compromise political
dialogue.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................v
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. ix
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 
Limitations ...............................................................................................................1 
Personal Scope .........................................................................................................2 
2 A CRITICAL ‘TAG’: APPLYING THEORY AND ART HISTORICAL
METHODOLOGIES TO HOPE ...................................................................................5 
Appropriation, Parody, and Pastiche .......................................................................9 
The Source Photograph ....................................................................................10 
Pastiche ............................................................................................................11 
Murray Edelman ....................................................................................................12 
Walter Benjamin ....................................................................................................20 
Guy Debord and Situationist International ............................................................22 
Jean Baudrillard .....................................................................................................26 
Johanna Drucker ....................................................................................................30 
3 THE HISTORY OF THE POLITICAL IMAGE .........................................................36 
Cubism ...................................................................................................................37 
Cubist Conclusion ..................................................................................................42 
Dada .......................................................................................................................43 
The Agitprop Imagery of Constructivism ..............................................................45 
Protest ....................................................................................................................52 
Student Protests in Paris, France; May 1968 ...................................................53 
Che Guevara.....................................................................................................58 
Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Party ...................................................62 
The Fine Art of Politics..........................................................................................67 
Ben Shahn ........................................................................................................68
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Andy Warhol ....................................................................................................69 
Robbie Conal ...................................................................................................71 
Pop .........................................................................................................................74 
Culture Jamming ....................................................................................................80 
Silence = Death ................................................................................................81 
Barbara Kruger .................................................................................................82 
OBEY Giant ...........................................................................................................85 
OBEY Clothing ................................................................................................87 
Product ‘Alternative’ .......................................................................................89 
Fame .................................................................................................................89 
Manifesto .........................................................................................................90 
Hope .......................................................................................................................91 
The Man, the Image, the Myth .........................................................................93 
Hope’s Grassroots Appearance ........................................................................95 
Lawsuit .............................................................................................................96 
Corporate Compromise ..........................................................................................97 
4 FROM GRAFFITI TO STREET ART ........................................................................99 
History of Graffiti ................................................................................................100 
Graffiti Terminology and Graffiti Styles .......................................................101 
Policing Graffiti .............................................................................................102 
Graffiti Moves Indoors ..................................................................................104 
Graffiti in the Gallery .....................................................................................105 
Graffiti: Art World Blockbuster.....................................................................106 
Graffiti to Street Art .............................................................................................107 
Street Art: Art World Blockbuster .......................................................................109 
Corporate Street Art .............................................................................................111 
The Implications of Corporate Street Art ............................................................114 
5 THE ROLE OF NEW MEDIA: A LOOK AT NEW MEDIA CULTURAL
PRODUCTION AND ITS IMPACT ON PRESIDENTIAL POLITICAL
CAMPAIGNS ............................................................................................................115 
The Emergence of the Television ........................................................................116 
Advertising Strategies ..........................................................................................119 
Nixon’s 1968 Advertising Strategies ...................................................................121
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Stills Used for Nixon ...........................................................................................122 
The Twenty-First Century Campaign ..................................................................123 
New Advertising Strategy: Branding And Image Marketing ........................124 
Micro-Targeting .............................................................................................125 
Howard Dean and the Internet .............................................................................127 
Obama’s Brand Integration ..................................................................................127 
Youth Activists ..............................................................................................128 
Connection Transparency ..............................................................................128 
Interactive ......................................................................................................130 
Intimacy .........................................................................................................131 
Shepard Fairey’s User Generated Content ...........................................................132 
Micro-Targeting Personalizes ..............................................................................133 
Style .....................................................................................................................133 
Media Style ..........................................................................................................136 
Conclusion ...........................................................................................................138 
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................139
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LIST OF FIGURES
PAGE
Figure 1. Shepard Fairey, HOPE (2008). ..................................................................................6 
Figure 2. Mannie Garcia, untitled (Barack Obama at National Press Club Meeting)
(2006). ............................................................................................................................7 
Figure 3. Pablo Picasso, Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass (1912). ..................................40 
Figure 4. El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919). ......................................46 
Figure 5. Alexander Rodchenko, Rubbertrust Pacifier Advertisement (1932). .......................49 
Figure 6. Photograph by Seige Hambourg, Wall of the Atelier Populaire with Posters
(1968). ..........................................................................................................................56 
Figure 7. Alberto Korda, Guerrillero Herico (1960). ..............................................................59 
Figure 8. Emory Douglas, You Can Jail a Revolutionary, But You Can’t Jail the
Revolution (1969/1970). ..............................................................................................65 
Figure 9. Ben Shahn, Peace (1968). ........................................................................................68 
Figure 10. Andy Warhol, Vote McGovern (1972). ..................................................................70 
Figure 11. Robbie Conal, Contra Diction 1988. ......................................................................73 
Figure 12. Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych (1962). .................................................................76 
Figure 13. Barbara Kruger, Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face (1981). ...............................84 
Figure 14. Shepard Fairey, Andre the Giant has a Posse (1989). ...........................................86 
Figure 15. Shepard Fairey, OBEY Giant (1998). .....................................................................88
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
LIMITATIONS
Michael Ann Holly's essay Patterns in the Shadows discusses the writings of Michael
Baxandall. In her essay she describes how art historical writing is derived from and
empowered by a melancholic connection to the past through the historical art objects the
discipline appropriates as its own. Holly argues that an art object may be all we have left of a
former time and it is the task of the art historian to attempt to recall that lost period through
the discussion of the object. The art object provides "reparation" for the absence of the past,
while the art historian writes about the absent past through the enduring material presence of
the work or art.
Baxandall grounds his work in an acknowledgement of loss and in the recognition of
the passing of time according to Holly. Furthering this distance is critical theory's use of
language which is insufficient and falls short of fully depicting the visual object. Writing
about the form however offers consolation, which allows the recovery or attempted recovery
of the meaning of an object that persisted through time.
Holly locates Baxandall's idiosyncratic brand of melancholic history writing to be in a
lineage descending from Walter Benjamin. Benjamin understood the transhistorical
connections between the historical object, which had outlived its time, and its contemplation
by historians who longed for the past in the present. Additionally, Benjamin, like Baxandall,
found language to impede the definitive writing of history because words unceasingly
misrepresent images. This awareness of loss did not deter the two from discussing art,
because, as Benjamin put it, "redemptive possibilities" were ever present in the interpretation.
Where Benjamin relied on allegory to explain or describe past objects, Baxandall
maintained allegiance to the discussion of the art object, resulting in a cautious melancholic
reading. While melancholia can be defined as a refusal to relinquish the unresolved past, the
melancholia of Baxandall is an embrace of the departed object that contemplates the object’s
form and history for redemptive consolation. Baxandall acknowledges contemplative