What Is Your Reaction . . .

January 31st, 2008
By SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist

. . . to this poster of Barack Obama by propaganda poster artist Shepard Fairly? Does it resonate positively or is there something ominous in the style and wording?

What do you think?

Hat tip to American Digest

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 5:30 am and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Barack Obama, Art, 2008 Elections. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Lynx 9 months ago 2 points
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hmmm mixed reaction. I can't know for sure what it would say to me if I just came accross it and was asked since you already laid out the option that I would like it or it would be ominous.

On the one hand it has the epic feel to it. The angle, the faraway look, the favorable image all contribute. The use of red and blue reminds one of the mix of red and blue states and the message of post-partisanship Obama tries to carry, especially since he appears to be a meeting of pure red and blue fields. It also reminds me of some of the wall murals of black leaders I used to see on basketball courts and the like in the black neighborhoods in San Francisco.

On the other hand there is a certain "assimilate" old-style soviet propaganda feel to it as well. The "O" in his button looks like a spiders-web or a black hole, not a sun. The block letters that spell "progress" are probably the worst. It looks more like "Progress...or else".

Overall I think the effect is positive, but that is almost certainly colored by the fact that I support this candidate. Others, especially those who are more wary of "movements" might find it more sinister.

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Dave_Schuler 9 months ago 1 point
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A little too socialist realism for my taste.

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elrod 9 months ago 1 point
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Why "progress"? I think of the John Prine lyric: "They wrote it all down to the progress of man."

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DLS 9 months ago 2 points
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Totalitarian (you probably noticed that retro-allusion, Shaun) and personality cult. So long as you know about these historical facts and can look past them, it makes the poster design interesting. Red and blue are a nice contemporary touch. I'd say "change" rather than "progress."

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Jillmz 9 months ago 1 point
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I like it - a little retro but nice. He is a very serious guy. And with the change that's needed, we need serious too.

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T_Steel 9 months ago 1 point
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More personality cult than totalitarian yet it doesn't seem ominous. I think the Americanism of the artwork is plainly evident. Hopeful not hopeless IMHO.

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DLS 9 months ago 1 point
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All that's needed besides changing to "CHANGE" is a finishing touch...

Obama is one of those who can be selected here.

http://www.celebritymustache.com/

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Jillmz 9 months ago 1 point
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T-Steel - it's so funny you write that. After I hit "post" for my comment and was looking at the image again, I thought about how that very very slight upturn in Obama's smile in the poster gives juuuuuust that right amount of hope without being overzealous or ominous. I don't see it as ominous at all.

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cosmoetica 9 months ago 1 point
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It actually looks like the frontispiece to Mao's Little Red Book.

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Rudi 9 months ago 1 point
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It also looks like an Andy Warhol 1960's silk screen from the NY Factory. Will Obamama push tomato soup if not elected? Now if Obama used Peter Max...

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Weightman 9 months ago 1 point
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Where's the beret and moustache? Maybe they'll appear if I wear my cardboard 3-D glasses.

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