Power and Glory III Revision as of 17:07, 13 May 2014 by Conartstudio (Talk | contribs)
From The Giant: The Definitive Obey Giant Site
Year: 2014
Run Size: 75
Part of Set: Power And Glory Foil Block Print Set
Size: 27.3x27.3
Paper: Somerset Tub sized 410gsm
Print Type: Foil Block Print
Release Date: 01/15/2014
From Obeygiant.com:
POWER AND GLORY FOIL BLOCK PRINTS
Shepard Fairey and Paul Stolper Gallery have collaborated once again to launch four new silkscreen and foil block prints titled ‘Power and Glory’. This is the first time Shepard has used foil-blocking. The prints will be exhibited at the LA Art Show from January 15 – 19, 2014 (Booth 622). Please note that a limited number of prints will be available for collection from the LA Art Show, the remainder of the prints are in fabrication and will be ready in early March.
The Paul Stolper gallery is proud to announce the launch of a group of four new screen prints with foil-block by internationally renowned LA based artist Shepard Fairey. Entitled ‘Power and Glory’ this is the third project the gallery has worked on with Fairey, The set of four new works continue the artist’s investigation into contemporary America.
The genesis for each print is the American Flag, an iconic and potent image that artists such as Jasper Johns’s ‘Flag’ (1954) and Peter Blake’s ‘Old Glory’ (2011) have explored as has Joe Rosenthal’s ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’ (1945) in photography. Celebrated, revered, abused, and even burnt the US flag constantly invokes passion on a grand scale. Serving initially as the ‘marking of American territory’, Adam Goodheart, Prologue of ‘1861: The Civil War Awakening’, it has now also become the calling card of the biggest consumer society in the world. Its popularity and consequently its Pop Art qualities have not been lost on Fairey who understands but also questions its ubiquitous presence. Much like advertising the incessant flying of the flag outside homes, stores, and businesses has turned it into a corporate brand identity that Fairey subverts both stylistically and conceptually.
As the design of the US flag, over time, has developed to incorporate more States, so Fairey has graphically dissected the ‘Stars and Stripes’, and re-configured them into a completely new design, where the single star is the dominant central motif surrounded by seven stripes. Fairey hijacks the solitary star inserting the Obey motif, itself an international logo that questions authority. This Trojan horse effect of drawing the viewer in to the image through the use of design and colour to then spit back questions of allegiance and ownership are key to Fairey’s work, much like Jamie Reid inserting a safety-pin into the lip of the Queen. The set could just as easily have been titled ‘Whose Power and Whose Glory?’, since the piece is equal parts celebratory and cautionary because one person’s American dream is another person’s American nightmare.
In ‘Power and Glory’ the richness of design is heightened by Fairey’s use, for the first time, of foil-blocking, a method whereby a metallic sheet is debossed onto the sheet of paper, using a metal etched plate, and printed after the silk screening process. The effect very cleverly mimicking the delicate design of scroll-work found on US monetary notes.
Power and Glory III, 2014 Silkscreen and gold foil block print on Somerset Tub sized 410gsm. Edition of 75. Edition 1 – 20 sold as complete set. Signed and numbered 69.4 x 69.4 cm / 27.3 x 27.3 in
Related Prints: Power and Glory I - Power and Glory II - Power and Glory IV - Power And Glory Foil Block Print Set