(art courtesy of Kii Arens - found at https://kiiarens.com)
Political campaigns in the modern era continue to inspire art that is memorable and moving. Kii Arens recent offering of Kamala Harris (above) falls into that pantheon.
Political hopefuls rely on art at times to set their theme or at least drive it home. In 2008, a young upstart candidate named Barack Obama was assisted by a work of great art by artist Shepard Fairey. Fairey’s offering drove home and popularized Obama’s chief campaign slogan and theme, “Hope.”
To this day, it is the gold standard on this kind of art in election campaign, if one is using such a tool (as opposed to nasty, divisive rhetoric to motivate and/or inspire). Fairey’s poster was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery after the election and is now a timeless capture of a political moment of historical relevance.
Fairey’s work is “based the work on an Associated Press photograph by Mannie Garcia… Fairey…transformed” the photograph using “his signature high-contrast stencil technique… The poster ultimately captures the period of “Soviet Socialist Realism.”
(image courtesy of Shepard Fairey and the National Portrait Gallery)
Arens’ poster of Kamala Harris promoting her theme of “Joy” in her signature Converse sneakers suggests the same kind of iconic qualities. Arens grew up in St Paul, Minnesota, “fascinated by fonts, music, and poster art,” according to a feature on him in Flood Magazine.
Arens pivoted West to Los Angeles in 2004 Arens where he opened up a gallery called “La-La Land Gallery.” It was there that Arens, inter alia, featured an artist named Shepard Fairey, the same Fairey who created “Hope” in 2008 inspired by a young Barack Obama.
There is nothing new about any of this, political posters, or the evolution of the poster into using pop art. Abraham Lincoln had a campaign poster as did losing candidates like Eugene McCarthy in 1968. Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon also had famous campaign posters.
But the use of pop art and its sense of now is a new development. Where campaign posters have always been useful, pop art makes the person asking for our trust and support more accessible and approachable.
The Obama “Hope” poster, adopted by his campaign, eventually was sold on T-shirts and other memorabilia. New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl called the ‘Hope’ poster “the most efficacious American political illustration since ‘Uncle Sam Wants You.’”
It remains to be seen what shall become of the historic run of Kamala Harris. Her personality, qualifications, and experience are certainly up to the test. Arens’ poster captures the attitude and sentiments of her campaign and message.
Eric Easter commented that he noticed that there was no Hiliary pop art or funky swag at the 2016 convention.