PRESS RELEASE from Danziger Projects |
521 West 26th Street | New York, NY 10001
CAN & DID -
Graphics, Art, and Photography from the Obama Campaign
January 20 – February 28, 2009
Opening on the Inauguration Day of our 44th President, "CAN & DID -
Graphics, Art, and Photography from the Obama Campaign" looks at
numerous and varied examples of the inspired visual work that appeared
during the 2008 presidential election.
From the original Barack Obama "O" mark – a campaign identity designed
by Sol Sender, Andy Keene, and Amanda Gentry, to the photojournalistic
work of Pulitzer Prize winning photographer David Turnley (subsequently
used as source material by the artist Shepard Fairey) the visuals
connected to the Obama campaign seemed on a higher level than the
political norm. Clearly the candidate and his message motivated artists
and designers to do inspired work.
Not surprisingly, the Obama campaign, well known for its fundraising
prowess, was an active agent in the commissioning and disseminating of
work. They had their own internal design team which reported directly
to David Axelrod and David Plouffe – the two top Obama advisors. They
reached out to artists and designers through an "Artists for Obama"
initiative which sought to raise money and awareness through the sale
of editioned prints by such industry leaders as Robert Indiana and
Shepard Fairey,
Lance Wyman, the legendary graphic designer best known for his iconic
1968 Mexico Olympics poster, was approached out of the blue by the
campaign. Shepard Fairey, whose HOPE poster was perhaps the defining
image of the campaign, was initially connected to the Obama team by
Yosi Sargent ,a 32 year old Los Angeles media consultant working for
the campaign. Hundreds of thousands of Fairey's posters and the
iterations put out by the various local offices were eventually printed.
Additionally, there was an unprecedented outpouring of independent
posters created in support of Obama, many of them aggregated on
websites like DesignforObama.org. where they could be freely printed
out. While some have branded this work as propagandistic. it does not
seem fair to use that term to belittle it. As Sol Sender put it in an
interview with Steven Heller, the co-chairman of the MFA Design program
at the School of Visual Art, "The design development was singularly
inspired by the candidate's message."
That the work was singularly effective is an assertion backed up by the
fact that every piece released by the official Artists for Obama
program quickly sold out. (Much of the work in this show comes from the
artists' own limited proofs.) But both the breadth of work created for
Obama and the demand seem a heartening rather than a cynical response
to today's political reality and the truly historic event of Obama's
election.
For more information please e-mail info@danzigerprojects.com or call
212 629 6778
The show includes work (which can be viewed at danzigerprojects.com) by:
Michael Bierut
Shepard Fairey
Robert Indiana
Annie Leibovitz
Mr. Brainwash
Michael Murphy
Paula Scher
Sol Sender, Andy Keene, and Amanda Gentry
Mickalene Thomas
David Turnley
Lance Wyman
Jim Young
& work from the Design for Obama website