Post #569095 by woofmutt on Fri, Dec 17, 2010 8:49 AM

"So, what about Shepard Fairey?"

I wasn't consciously aware of Fairey so I looked him up and found this:

Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey
A critique by artist Mark Vallen
"Fairey has developed a successful career through expropriating and recontextualizing the artworks of others, which in and of itself does not make for bad art. Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein based his paintings on the world of American comic strips and advertising imagery, but one was always aware that Lichtenstein was taking his images from comic books...By contrast, Fairey simply filches artworks and hopes that no one notices - the joke is on you."

Which all sounds pointed and lofty until you get into the article and discover that Vallen doesn't like Fairey's work, doesn't like that Fairey doesn't credit original sources for his images, and doesn't think Fairey has solid artistic reasons for making his work.

I don't find Fairey's work to be all that interesting and I think Vallen's nitpicking is pretty pointless but it does provide one answer to this thread's core question...

"Why are artists sometimes assholes?"

Because sometimes they're bitching about succesful artists who they think are less talented than themselves.