Shepard Fairey — Farewell to Freedom (Stephen Colbert, 2014): A Collector’s Guide
On December 18, 2014, The Colbert Report aired its final episode.
Shepard Fairey made the send-off print.
Farewell to Freedom sits on the seam between political satire and street art — a Fairey collaboration with Stephen Colbert tied to a specific night of television. This is the full story of the work and what to check before you buy.
View this piece at Gauntlet Gallery →
What you are actually looking at
This is a 2014 screen print Fairey designed in collaboration with Stephen Colbert for the finale of The Colbert Report. It pairs Fairey’s propaganda-poster vocabulary with Colbert’s satirical persona — the visual grammar of the political poster deployed for a comedian who spent nine years playing a mock political pundit. The result is a piece that reads as both a tribute and an in-joke.
Why this print carries a moment
Some prints are about an image. This one is about an event. Fairey designed it as a direct send-off for the show’s finale, and some examples were handed out to attendees at the live December 18, 2014 taping. That distribution gives the edition a documentary connection to a specific cultural moment in American television — the night one of the most influential satirical programs of its era signed off.
For collectors, that crossover is the appeal: it is an unusual object that belongs equally to a street-art collection and to a shelf of late-night and political-satire memorabilia.
Shepard Fairey, in one paragraph you actually need
If you are new to the artist: Shepard Fairey (b. 1970) is one of the most influential American artists of his generation. He emerged from the 1990s skateboarding and street-art scene with his OBEY Giant campaign — an experiment in propaganda and public space that grew into a global visual language. In 2008 his Barack Obama "Hope" portrait became one of the most recognizable political images in modern history. His work is held by the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, LACMA, and the Smithsonian. New editions release through his OBEY studio, where limited runs routinely sell out and trade actively on the secondary market.
The OBEY method: how Fairey builds an image
To understand why any Fairey print works, it helps to understand how he builds an image. His visual system is borrowed, deliberately, from twentieth-century propaganda — Soviet constructivism, WPA posters, the hard symmetry of political printing. He strips those forms of their original message and reloads them. A star, a sunburst, a bordered portrait, a slab of stylized type: individually they are the furniture of persuasion. Assembled, they make the viewer feel the weight of a message before reading a single word.
The Deco framing and floral geometry that recur across his work are not ornament — they are the poster’s way of saying “this is important, this is public.” Fairey has spent three decades training viewers to read that grammar instantly, which is exactly why his editions read as coherent whether the subject is a boxer, a factory, or a flower.
The edition and how it reached the market
The print was released in 2014 as a screen print in an edition of 500, hand-signed and numbered. Its origin story is unusual: rather than a standard timed OBEY drop, it is tied to the finale of a television program, with some copies given out at the live taping. That mix of a fixed, hand-numbered edition and an event-driven release is what gives the piece its distinct character.
Authentication: what actually backs a Fairey
This is the part collectors most often get wrong, so read it carefully.
Shepard Fairey does not issue an artist certificate of authenticity, and there is no third-party authentication board for his work — no Fairey equivalent of Banksy’s Pest Control. That is not a gap. It is how the entire Fairey market operates.
Authenticity for a signed Fairey rests on three things: the signature and numbering, the physical characteristics of the edition (paper stock, print process, edges, any embossed OBEY stamp), and provenance. Be skeptical of anyone selling a Fairey with a claim of "third-party authentication" or a certificate implying an official board signed off — no such board exists for his prints. A credible seller documents the signature, the numbering, the format, and the chain of ownership.
Condition: what to check, and why photographs matter
Condition drives value on paper works more than most first-time buyers expect. The things that move the needle are handling creases or corner dings, the brightness of the stock, whether the sheet has been trimmed or laid down, and any light-toning.
Because condition is specific to the individual sheet, treat the listing photographs as part of the condition report, not decoration. Zoom into the corners and the margins around the signature. If anything is unclear, ask for additional images — a reputable gallery will provide them. We do not assert a formal grade here; the photographs form part of the condition description.
What the market says
Now the numbers — restrained, because this is context, not a promise.
Across recent signed-and-numbered comparables for the Colbert Farewell to Freedom print, observed asking and sale prices run roughly $180–$445 with a median near $236. These are directional, secondary-market figures only and vary by condition, edition designation, and venue. Data reviewed 2026.
A caveat to hold onto: these figures are directional rather than an appraisal. Value on any specific sale varies with edition, dimensions, condition, the strength of the documentation, and the venue of the transaction. No one — including us — can promise where the piece goes next.
Who this piece is for
This is a genuinely cross-collected object. The Fairey collector wants a collaboration with a recognizable name and a specific occasion. The satire and TV-history collector wants a tangible artifact from the finale of The Colbert Report. And the message-first buyer likes the collision of political comedy and poster art. Few Fairey prints sit at that intersection.
How to buy a Fairey print — a short discipline
If this would be an early Fairey purchase, a little discipline saves a lot of regret.
Buy the specific sheet, not the image. Two examples of the same print at the same edition size are not the same asset if one has bright margins and crisp corners and the other has a soft crease and light-toning. Read the condition notes and the photographs as the real description; the title is just the headline.
Confirm the physical markers. Check that the signature, any date, and the numbering are present and legible, and that the format matches what a genuine example should be — paper stock, print process, deckled edges, and any embossed OBEY stamp.
Weigh documentation, not certificates. Because Fairey prints have no official COA and no third-party board, what protects you is a clear account of where the piece came from and a seller who describes it honestly. Be more comfortable with a well-documented sheet and no fancy certificate than with a glossy certificate and a vague story.
Set your number before you look at the price. Decide what the piece is worth to you given the market context, then see whether the offer fits. That order of operations is the single most useful habit in print collecting.
Living with the work: display and care
Once it is yours, a signed print on quality paper is a durable object that rewards a little care. Frame it with UV-protective glazing and an acid-free mat, and keep it off walls that take direct afternoon sun; cream stock is beautiful precisely because it has not yellowed, and light is the thing that yellows it. If the sheet has deckled edges, consider a float mount so the hand-cut edge shows rather than hiding under a window mat — on these prints, the deckle is part of what you paid for. None of this is expensive relative to the work, and all of it protects both the experience of ownership and the eventual resale.
Frequently asked questions
Is it signed? Yes — hand-signed and numbered from the edition of 500.
What is the connection to Colbert? Fairey designed it in collaboration with Stephen Colbert for the December 18, 2014 finale of The Colbert Report; some copies were given out at the live taping.
Does it come with a certificate? Fairey issues no artist COA and there is no third-party authentication board for his prints. Authenticity rests on the signature, numbering, format, and provenance.
Is it framed? Refer to the current listing; framing and condition are described per item, and the photographs form part of that description.
The bottom line
Farewell to Freedom is a rare kind of Fairey: a signed, numbered edition of 500 that is also a piece of television history, made for the finale of The Colbert Report and partly distributed at the taping itself. It lives at the crossing point of street art and satire, which is exactly why it holds attention. The individual sheet — its number, its condition — is where the decision lives.
See the current example and full details at Gauntlet Gallery →
