OBEY Rips Off Restitution Press
Posted: March 24th, 2009 | Author: RJ | Category: Art News, Featured Posts | Tags: obey, obey clothing, restitution press, shepard fairey | 12 Comments »UPDATE: I was misinformed, the Bandit image below is by Restitution Press, and the skull image is by Euthanasia.
Photo by Lord Jim
Looks like it’s time to add Restitution Press to the list of artists that Shepard Fairey may have stolen imagery from without giving credit. Restitution Press has been wheatpasting in LA and other cities for years, and now it looks like two of their images have one of their images has been stolen and combined with an image by Euthanasia for use in a tshirt by OBEY Clothing.
Essentially, here’s what happened:
Those first two images are by Restitution Press. The first image is by Restitution Press, the second is by Euthanasia, and the last one is a close up of a tshirt by OBEY Clothing. They sure look pretty similar.
Here’s the full image of the shirt:
This looks to be one of OBEY’s classic “re-appropriations” where they have taken some images that they like, changed them slightly, and the stuck some OBEY logos around.
And it would be pretty hard for Shepard Fairey to play dumb about these images. He knows they exist. Last year he wrote to the head of Restitution Press complimenting him on their work.
I wonder what Shepard Fairey from last April would have to say about this…
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He openly admits to stealing other people’s work in his book Supply and Demand, it is not a secret he tries to shun to the side. And anyway I would say this is probably not the most blatent rip off he has made, he has changed factors. Also you could come up with something like this pretty easily by yourself, it’s not like the whole idea is restitution press’s, people have probably done similar before.
You’re right. Shepard Fairey does acknowledge his use of other people’s imagery in Supply and Demand, but unless you’ve bought that book (and even if you have), it would not be immediately apparent in many cases what he’s done. This shirt for example, does not, at least to me, immediately scream “I am an amalgamation of the work of another person.” I would have assumed that all the work was original work.
And I’m fine with artists using popular imagery in their work. I have a painting sitting 15 feet from me right now by Pure Evil which uses an image from Where The Wild Things Are. Love it.
What really bugs me is Fairey’s hypocrisy. I’m a big fan of fair use and copyright reform. This blog, and the images on my flickr, are licensed under a Creative Commons pretty liberal license so that the content is easy to share and reproduce. I’m not sure if that’s the case with Fairey though. When he’s using newspaper ads to make a stencil or old propaganda posters to sell his clothing, he’s all about fair use and parody. As soon as somebody does the same to him though, he gets upset. If Fairey would acknowledge his inspirations more openly and didn’t threaten to sue people who parody him, I’d probably be his biggest fan.
That’s a good point that this could be completely unintentional. It might be. Based on Shepard Fairey’s admitted history of using other people’s imagery, the similarities here, and the fact that he was familiar with Restitution Press’ work, it just seems pretty likely that it wasn’t a coincidence. It could be though.
Restitution Press spent years ripping off OBEY. Seems like all is fair in love and war.
If that’s the case (and it may very well be), please feel free to send me some evidence. I live all the way in London, so I don’t see very much here by Restitution Press. I only found out about them when a friend tipped me off about this shirt. If you can show me that Restitution Press ripped off OBEY, I’ll put that up here as well.
Well first factor in that Shepard himself does not design all that is OBEY. There is a team of lackeys at Studio Number 1 that work on the clothing line, magazine, etc etc. and another office in Santa Ana where designing might take place. I HIGHLY doubt Shepard sat down and created that lame shirt alone.
Restitution Press is one man, he made the poster of the bandit image. The skull image was made by Euthansia, a different artist. But anyone who takes an image of their own face or someone elses face, silouettes the image, and then tiles it like wallpaper over the streets is obviously using the OBEY school of art.
At the end of the day, the shirt is a rip off of Euthanasia and Restitution Press. But who cares…..
To me Fairy will always go down in history as a second rate Andy Warhol imitator. After years of him churning out what can only be seen as an art school kid ripping of a neo constructavist 1900′s russian poster art – but replacing the communist worker with a picture of a dead 20th century cultural icon. Originality will never blossom from his hands, creativity died when the photo he used loaded on to his photoshop window.
His work only proves one theory that if you throw enough dung at a wall.. eventually someone will reccognise you as the guy who throws dung at walls. 21st century culture has helped to confuse what was traditional artistic merit to being a guy who’s face finally becomes reccognised as the dung throwing guy.
If we all ignored the dung on the wall the dung guy would not exist.
And to be selected to do the President’s portrait is only a sad reflection of today’s society.
Restitution Press did not create the zombie image, the illustration was drawn by the Los Angeles street artist Euthanasia, and was subsequently printed in a issue of Restitution Press, along with other images he created as part of a collaboration between the two artists. The work can be view on his myspace at http://www.myspace.com/euth. These are two different artist who collaborate with one another, not one person.
Please remember to give credit to the correct sources.
Thanks for clarifying this Euthanasia.
Thank you for correcting it, its greatly appreciated.
To those who are talking about Restitution Press in a negative light, stop to take a second and think about things in a broader sense. As a Illustrator, founder of a collective zine and as a Los Angeles based artist he has in a lot of way influenced street art on his own. Most of the common place practices we see now in Los Angeles stem from his work, be it branding or the use of silk screen prints as opposed to photo copies.
The Bandit image has become a Icon, and while you can chose to argue that Shepard was making art first, Robbie Conal was doing it long before him – point being, its not about who does what first, but how its done and if its done right. If you take the time to even flickr search Restitution Press you will see a huge sample of artwork by tons of artists brought together under a common umbrella, all of which I would argue is a pretty good indicator of originality.
I would also like to point out that the work does speak for itself, and how many people on here commenting are out there pushing new ideas and creating images strictly for the public?
How you feel about the shirt is your choice, but don’t go cutting artist’s down when you don’t have any idea what they are about.
GIVE THEM ALL THERE CREDIT, AS LONG AS THEY ARE PUTTING IT DOWN FOR WHAT THEY LOVE TO DO AND THAT IS WHEAT PASTING THAN STOP THE NEGATIVITY! PEACE BITCHES.
has it crossed anyone’s mind that Shepard purposely referenced both pieces? its a commentary on the current street art scene. a homage to the other two artists. a statement- either suggesting that these two artists are to be acknowledged in the LA scene, -or- suggesting that these other two artists have ripped him (only Shepard’s work is seen in the background). either way i find anyone’s work to be far more engaging when it references things currently unfolding, rather than a simple image which is already known and accepted by all.