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Think of pivotal cultural moments of the mid-twentieth century and know that Jim Marshall documented those imprints. From Woodstock to civil liberties, Bob Dylan to antiwar protests, Marshall’s photographic legacy has helped younger generations put these crucial, iconic movements into context. This summer, beginning with a special showcase in Washington, DC to benefit the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Shepard Fairey and the estate of Jim Marshall will collaborate on a series of five new pieces that champion Marshall’s work on the issues of voting rights, mass incarceration, workers’ rights, firearm ownership, and a fragmented America. We asked Shepard to speak about one project in particular, the incisive examination of gun culture.
“Jim Marshall captured what, at first glance, is regarded as an innocent child playing with a toy gun in Greenwich Village, New York in 1963. In many ways, I see this image as predicting the increase in gun violence in New York City, as well as the rest of the country, that has taken place in the ensuing years. 33,000 people per year lose their lives from guns, and I attribute this to an American gun culture that glorifies gun ownership and puts gun rights ahead of safety. Jim Marshall’s image was ominous to begin with, but it was important to me to use the American flag and gun violence articles to make the connection between an ingrained gun culture as part of the fabric of America, and the resulting devastatingly high statistics of gun violence.”
American Civics is a fine art limited edition series of five serigraphs: Voting Rights, Mass Incarceration, Workers’ Rights, Gun Culture, and Two Americas. Each title is limited to an edition of 100 prints, and each is hand signed and numbered by Shepard Fairey and stamped by Jim Marshall Photography LLC.
Meet Shepard Fairey & Preview the American Civics Series on Saturday, August 13, 2016 from 1pm to 4pm at the San Francisco Art Exchange at 458 Geary Street, San Francisco.
