Obamaism pushes Neo-Figurativism

The Return to Figurative Art

Yes, the rebelliousness of much contemporary art can be marked as a response to 9/11.

However immense the shock, in this age of change, art proves its substance.  Start with the ‘America's Presidents’ portraits exhibition - the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, USA, where there now hangs a magnificent portrait of President Barack Obama, by artist Shepard Fairey.

Figurative Art feels like comfort food, when Fairey’s Portrait of Barack Obama came to symbolize the historic campaign that was President-elect Obama’s triumph in 2008.

Los Angeles–based graphic designer and street artist, Fairey, created the initial illustration of Barack Obama for the election race.  Fairey’s portrait soon became one of the most memorable, highly collectable, images from the election.

As an unprecedented and powerful icon for Obama’s historic campaign, this portrait portrays a saviour coming to our rescue.  Jesus-like, Obama’s visionary portrait holds his face heroic in pose, glancing upwards - ‘In God We Trust’ thought – heaven high. Warholian in its household appeal, with Fairey’s slogan caption, “Hope”, it made the first African American president of the United States.

Under America’s nationalistic red, white and blue colour scheme, Fairey dismisses colour and race for the unification of all Americans, united under the hues of the Starts and Stripes flag.  Fairey said, "My desire for the image was to make something that I thought was patriotic and iconic but unique enough to capture the interest of people."

Albeit embracing a pop-culture feel, the surface patterning in Fairey’s original 6ft high, hand-finished mixed-media collage, stencil and acrylic on paper, is elegant.  "I wanted to make an art piece of Barack Obama,” said Fairey, “Because I thought an iconic portrait of him could symbolize and amplify the importance of his mission.  Because I think that Barack is the rare candidate who is simultaneously dignified, intellectual, and presidential, without losing his good natured humanity.  I have made art opposing the Iraq war for several years, and making art of President Barak Obama, who opposed the war from the start, is like making art for peace”, explained Fairey.

Today, embracing Obama's "change", President Barack Obama says he is ready to reinvent and transform America.  The same is happening in the art world, shifting back to realism.