Shepard Fairey

Life and work

Frank Shepard Fairey was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1970 and came out of the skateboarding scene. In 1989, while a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, he made a sticker of the wrestler Andre the Giant captioned Andre the Giant Has a Posse. The campaign that grew from it became OBEY, a face, a word and a red, black and cream palette he has used ever since. He built a design studio and a clothing line alongside the art. In 2008 he made the Hope portrait of Barack Obama, which became the defining image of that campaign, entered the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, and drew a long copyright dispute with the Associated Press over the source photograph. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

Disciplines and how they differ

Almost everything under this name is printed, and the differences inside the printed work are what matter. At the base sit the large paper editions, screenprints signed and numbered in pencil and published through the artist's own imprint, in runs from a few hundred to several thousand. Above them sit the HPMs, the hand painted multiples, where a screened base is worked over individually with stencil, spray and collage so that no two sheets are the same; these run in very small numbers and carry the letters HPM in the inscription. Above those sit unique or near unique works on wood, aluminium and canvas, often in editions of two or three. LLB Auction has handled all three registers: two paper screenprints, one hand painted multiple that did not sell, and one editioned sculpture.

What a specialist examines

The inscription line does most of the work. Expect a pencil signature and date at the lower right and the number at the lower left, with HPM or AP written in where they apply. On the unique panels the signature is usually repeated on the reverse with the date and the number, so the back has to be photographed. The support tells you which register you are in: paper for the editions, wood, aluminium or canvas for the unique work. Look for the publisher's mark and for clean colour registration, because the screened blacks and creams sit flat and unvarnished, so scuffing, corner handling creases and light staining show at once. Sheets are commonly stored rolled and arrive with a set curl, which is normal and reversible; pin holes, which mean the sheet was once on a wall, are not. No body reviews works under this name for sellers, so the paperwork a consignor holds carries the weight.

Market position

The registers price apart. At Phillips in Hong Kong in November 2019 Lotus Ornament, a hand painted multiple of 2019 inscribed AP HPM, screenprint with mixed media collage on paper, made HKD 68,750. At Phillips in London in April 2015 Revolutionary Woman With Brush, a silkscreen on wood of 2007 and the artist's proof from an overall edition of two, made GBP 6,250, and in December 2018 the silkscreen on aluminium WAR IS OVER, numbered two of two, made GBP 4,000. At Bonhams in London in January 2011 an impression of Change of 2008, signed and numbered in pencil from an edition of five thousand, made GBP 4,560, and it came with a letter placing it in the small signed group given to the Obama campaign team, which is why it made what it did. Each figure includes the buyer's premium as the house prints it.

What a seller should have ready

The sheet or panel photographed complete, with all four margins, and the inscription line photographed close enough to read the letters HPM or AP if they are there. The reverse in full. Sheet measurements in centimetres. The edition number and the total edition size as written. Any publisher's stamp or blindstamp. For a hand painted multiple, raking light photographs that show the hand worked passages standing off the screened base, since that is what a buyer is paying for. And the purchase record, ideally from the release itself, because these editions were sold direct and dated release information places a sheet quickly.