Happy Presidents Day! In the US this is a holiday, officially to celebrate the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln, whose birthdays were commemorated separately until about a decade ago when they were merged. A lot of New Yorkers think today about skiing, since it’s really the last 3 day weekend of the winter – and it’s snowing this morning so a lot of kids will be shoved outside by their parents to go play in it. Or they may take them to the Met , Guggenheim, or MOMA, which are all open today.
George Washington by the Street Artist named Senator (photo © Jaime Rojo)
But back to the gallery of the street, which is always open, we can get a little history lesson too. Everybody knows that Shepard Fairey nailed it with his Obama posters a couple of years ago, but did you realize that Street Artists have been putting up many presidential portraits over the last decade? One artist, Senator, sometimes confused people with wheat-pasted pieces in the late 2000s because his name signed to the image lead you to think it was about the subject, like the George Washington image above. His black and white coloring-book style depicted many presidents – Lincoln, Adams, Jefferson, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan. As you can see below, Senator is not the only Street Artists to find US presidents a worthy topic.
Senator (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Abraham Lincoln by Visual Resistance (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Smoking Jack Kennedy by Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Richard Nixon by Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Senator (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ronnie talk to Keith; The Gipper shaking the hand of a Photoshopped Keith Hernandez from a street art viral campaign a couple of years ago. Photo © Jaime Rojo
Sever focuses on the the Bush Cheney duo. Primary Flight Miami 2008 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The simple placement of a dollar sign was all this Street Artist needed to complete their portrait of George W. Bush. Photo © Jaime Rojo
President Obama’s image next to Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth is appropriated by Street Artist General Howe (photo © Jaime Rojo)
One of the many Obama street art pieces from 2008, this one is similar to the ubiquitous Shepard Fairey images around at that time. © Jaime Rojo
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Two Rome-based architects/designers named Lorenzo Pagliara and Gianmaria Zonfrillo are our featured artists today as they bent perception with their new piece called Wireframe. In part two of our pub...
A tribute to singer Chris Cornell today from Street Artists and calligramist Opiemme. Opiemme. "Black Hole Sun" Urban Forms Foundation. Lodz, Poland. June 2017. (photo © PAWEŁ TRZEŹWIŃSKI) E...
Welcome to the first American celebration of graffiti studies. The Tag Conference Brooklyn is set to be an impressive event, bringing together some of the most influential and pioneering voices in the...
The Completed Murals from Okuda, Felipe Pantone, Astro, FinDAC, MrZL & Kalouf "I think it's the island that inspired me to do the painting,” Okuda says of this brand new surrealist dream on...
The stunning new Whitney Museum opens tomorrow, May 1st, in the Meat Packing District of lower Manhattan and you will be overwhelmed to see the last 115 years or so of artistic expression in America o...