Obama As An Art Form

“Barack Obama’s face is throwing me into an existential tailspin. I’m talking about those red, cream and blue art posters all over town. If you don’t know what I mean, take one look around a Trader Joe’s parking lot, paying special attention to the rear windows of Priuses or bio-diesel vehicles, and I guarantee that you’ll see one of these things on proud and ultra-hip display.

“The Obama poster has spread Fairey’s fame, but is the image good for the candidate? Like the photograph-turned-icon of Che Guevara — which graces the T-shirts of countless hipsters who barely know who the guy is — Fairey’s Obama poster is rooted in the graphic style of agitprop. There’s an unequivocal sense of idol worship about the image, a half-artsy, half-creepy genuflection that suggests the subject is (a) a Third World dictator whose rule is enmeshed in a seductive cult of personality; (b) a controversial American figure who’s been assassinated; or (c) one of those people from a Warhol silk-screen that you don’t recognize but assume to be important in an abstruse way.”

TheStateOf . . . Barack. “What shall I say of His speech? Perhaps something about His person lent power to His words and swayed those who heard Him. For He was comely, and the sheen of the day was upon His countenance.” - Kahlil Gibran, Jesus The Son Of Man, “Assaph Called The Orator of Tyre.”