Monday, May 17, 2010

Shepard Fairey mural on Bowery

Art or advertising?

22 comments:

Yvi said...

So beautiful!

Unknown said...

Colorful, beautiful.
Costas

Jiggy said...

Love it, especially the guys on bikes.

Anonymous said...

Is the graffiti intentional?

Unknown said...

Whatever it is it's striking.

Brenda's Arizona said...

I'm with AH - is the graffiti part of the 'art'? If it is advertising, for which company? Target or the newspaper? Good thinking here...

Michael Valčić said...

Heh, someone finally tagged up the mural. I was surprised it lasted so long.

frankdejol said...

Or maybe artistic advertising? ;-)
But it is less important.....silhouettes of cyclists catches the eyes. Excellent.

Birdman said...

One of you best images... it's got it all.

Chattahoochee Valley Daily said...

Bit of both I think.

Banjo52 said...

Very interesting. I haven't forgotten THE girl back in . . . FEb.???

Are you aware of a documentary about graffiti? I plan to see it.

dianasfaria.com said...

definitely art with subliminal messages that I wouldn't have noticed consciously had you not pointed it out.

James said...

Far out! I like it.

Juliane Evans said...

Fantastic - love the night photo

Juliane
wall art

desolate | metropolis said...

Fantastic shot. Love the color scheme and the graphic look of everything behind the bikers. The bikers themselves work great as sem-silhouetted too.

Banjo52 said...

Maybe we're all actors in Somebody's graphic novel . . .

Banjo52 said...

By the way, that documentary I referred to is titled "Exit through the Gift Shop," and Shephard Fairey is one of the important characters. It asks very important questions about what art is, esp. with regard to commercialization.

sonia a. mascaro said...

Great, Ken Mac! I think both...

byron said...

Not sure if this piece was commissioned or not, but:

If you look at the background of the piece you will see squares with a picture of former wrestler Andre the Giant.

These drawings used to be the trademark of graffiti artist "obey." The artist capitalized on his(?) graf identity and started a clothing line which is still around today.

That said, I would say BOTH: ad and art.

Thérèse said...

Probably both!

VisuaLingual said...

Shepard Fairey currently has an exhibit up at Deitch Projects, so these wheatpasted murals can be considered a kind of promotion or advertisement for the exhibit. In fact, the city has taken issue with another one of these murals.

I'm from Brooklyn and currently live in Cincinnati, where there is another Fairey exhibit currently up, and he has wheatpasted the same murals in locations around town here in conjunction with the exhibit. Two have already been painted over, one by the property owner who decided he didn't like the mural, and one by unknown parties.

To answer the question about the graffiti, it's not part of Fairey's design.

Voyager à New York said...

Very colorful !