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 iii Copyright © 2013 by Sarah Elizabeth Mitchell All Rights Reserved iv 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. v 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 The combined study of historical references in Hope and a survey of its use as a piece of viral marketing demonstrate how art is absorbed into the economic and political arena.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. vi 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 vii 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 viii 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 ix 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