By Roberta M. Gubbins
Legal News
"Our art collection began in 2005 with a generous donation from our Dean and President, Don Le Duc," said Associate Dean William Weiner, opening the ceremony for the unveiling of a Shepard Fairey print that took place in the Cooley Center Lobby on Sept 28th. "Since then we've been acquiring art with a loose mission of looking for legal themes and/ or some connection with our campuses."
The school now has a growing collection of paintings, prints, photographs and sculpture. After spending the initial money, we have had two more grants. Our new building in Ann Arbor has been fun. As the project has become better known we have received significant cash contributions--about $27,000. We have 54 items in the collection and 24 of them are gifts."
The Shepard Fairey print being unveiled today is one of the 24 gifts and has a "legal/political theme and fits the collection well," he said. "From unknown artists to Andy Warhol our art collection is growing."
"This art work," said Dean and President Don LeDuc, "is a gift of Heather Podesta who owns a lobbying company called Heather Podesta + Partners in Wash. DC. Heather is a lawyer and a trustee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, serves on the advisory board of the Peggy Guggenheim collection and sits on the Board of Trustees of the Ford Theater."
"Shepard Fairey," said Professor Charles Palmer, "is a contemporary graphic designer and graffiti artist who has won international awards. He came out of the skateboarding and t-shirt world. He appeals to the young people and to the skateboarder crowd."
Fairey became famous originally for his "André the Giant Has a Posse'' (...OBEY...) stickers and poster, Palmer explained.
"Fairey said (about Andre the Giant) that 'because people are not used to seeing advertising or propaganda for which the motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with Obey propaganda promote possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing viewers attention and perception to detail. The medium here is truly the message.' The thing about it is that it means nothing."
"The poster was put all over Boston. And then there was demand for it worldwide. It has been all over the world. Andre is now at Nordstroms."
In 2008, Fairey's work became more widely known in the U. S. presidentital election with his Barack Obama "Hope" poster. He created a series of posters supporting Obama's candidacy. Fairey printed thousands of the posters which he sold for $45, putting the money back into the poster fund. They were distributed worldwide.
"In my opinion and twenty years from now," Palmer said, "Shepard Fairey is going to become the new Warhol. He uses some of the same techniques. He is the street artist and has a good image and I am very happy that we have one of his works in our collection."
Palmer then unveiled the print "Flag," which will hang on the fifth floor of the school.
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists. His work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Published: Thu, Oct 13, 2011
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