Artist Statement
“My Obey "Bad Reputation" print is inspired by music graphics, especially punk and new wave album sleeves, t-shirts, and flyers. I love the Xerox machine with spot color approach to a lot of those graphics that married the rough and crude side of financial and artistic limitations with an intuitive and clever ability to craft subversive, eye-catching images. Some of the edges of this imagery and text are intentional, rough and imperfect… if slick and clean are your bag, you might want to skip this one baby! See if you can spot the references to musicians like the New York Dolls, Generation X,
About This Print
Bad Reputation (Black) is a screen print on Speckle Tone paper measuring 18 x 24 inches, published in 2019 by Obey Giant in a numbered edition of 350, signed by Shepard Fairey. Per Fairey's statement, the print is inspired by music graphics, especially punk and new wave album sleeves, t-shirts and flyers, embracing a deliberately rough, Xerox-with-spot-color aesthetic. He notes intentional imperfect edges and embeds references to musicians including the New York Dolls, Generation X, the Misfits and Joan Jett. A companion Cream variant exists in the same 350 edition.
Market Context
Estimated market value: 129.5. Observed range 100.0–299.99. Latest recorded sale: 2021-07-07. Value is the median of recorded public sales (>= $100); low-high shows the observed sale range.