FLOAT 100 · Art · No. 85
Obama Hope (Gold), Artists for Obama portfolio
Shepard Fairey's HOPE poster went from a design he made in a day to the defining image of the 2008 election, and this small gold screenprint, a thank-you gift to the campaign's big donors released just after Obama took office, is the last edition of HOPE prints he made for the president.
- Year
- 2008
- Maker
- Shepard Fairey
- By price in art
- 86 of 100
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- Shepard Fairey (Frank Shepard Fairey, born 1970, Charleston, South Carolina)
- Date
- 2008 (signed and dated '08'); one catalog dates it 2009, and a museum says it was released just after the January 2009 inauguration
- Medium
- Screenprint in colors, on Coventry 320 gm paper according to one catalog
- Size
- Image 28 x 18.1 cm (11 x 7 1/8 in); sheet 35.8 x 26 cm (14 1/8 x 10 1/4 in)
- Edition
- 300, signed and numbered along the lower edge
- Printer
- Modern Multiples
- Publisher
- Amanda Fairey (one catalog says Obey Giant, Los Angeles)
- Context
- Companion to Artists for Obama, a 2008 donor portfolio by 13 artists printed by Gemini G.E.L.
- Museum examples
- Museum of Modern Art, New York; Williams College Museum of Art
A poster made in a day
In October 2007, after talking about the Obama campaign with the publicist Yosi Sergant, Shepard Fairey made a poster design in a single day. He worked from a photograph he found through a Google image search. The first version carried the word 'progress' and Fairey's Obey star; the campaign asked him to change the word to 'hope.'
The photograph turned out to be a 2006 news-agency picture by the freelancer Mannie Garcia, taken at a media event about Darfur with Senator Sam Brownback and the actor George Clooney. Its source was not publicly identified until January 2009, and the news agency and Fairey later fought over it in court before settling in January 2011, agreeing to share rights. In September 2012 Fairey was sentenced to probation, 300 hours of community service and a $25,000 fine for destroying evidence in the case.
The first run was 350 posters sold and 350 posted in public. By October 2008, 300,000 posters had been printed and more than a million stickers given out, with the money going into more printing rather than to the artist.
Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey was born on February 15, 1970, in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1989, as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, he started the 'Andre the Giant Has a Posse' sticker campaign, which became the OBEY Giant image in 1996. He graduated in 1992 with a degree in illustration.
In 2003 he and his wife, Amanda Fairey, founded the design agency Studio Number One. Amanda Fairey is named as publisher of the Hope Gold print in the Museum of Modern Art's record.
The New Yorker's art critic called the HOPE poster the most efficacious American political illustration since 'Uncle Sam Wants You.' Fairey's work is in the Smithsonian, MoMA, the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Artists for Obama
In October 2008 the Democratic National Committee, working with the print studio Gemini G.E.L., told donors about a limited-edition portfolio of new prints given by 13 artists: John Baldessari, Jonathan Borofsky, Frank Gehry, Ann Hamilton, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Brice Marden, Julie Mehretu, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Susan Rothenberg and Richard Tuttle. It benefited the Obama Victory Fund, and 150 donors received the portfolio in return for a donation. Obama was elected a month after its release.
Fairey's Obama Hope Gold was not one of the 13 prints. It was a special-edition serigraph that complemented the portfolio, printed by Fairey with the approval of the Democratic National Committee and offered as an additional gift to donors at a certain giving level. According to the Williams College Museum of Art, the Gold prints were released just after Obama's inauguration and are the third and final edition of Fairey's HOPE prints of the president.
It was the autumn of the financial crisis. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, and Obama won the presidency on November 4.
In museums and at auction
The Museum of Modern Art owns an impression, acquired through the generosity of the collector Agnes Gund and shown in 'Studio Visit: Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund' in 2018. The Williams College Museum of Art received a complete Artists for Obama portfolio, number 94 of 150, together with a Hope Gold print, as a gift.
Single impressions come up at auction regularly. On October 13, 2022, impression 79/300, catalogued as 2009 on Coventry paper and published by Obey Giant, sold for $1,750 against an estimate of $2,000 to $3,000. On August 28, 2024, impression 36/300, signed and dated '36/300 Shepard Fairey 08' and sold with a certificate from OBEY Giant, brought $3,780 against an estimate of $1,200 to $1,800.
The original images behind the campaign are far more valuable. On January 7, 2009, the National Portrait Gallery acquired Fairey's hand-finished stencil and acrylic HOPE portrait, unusually before Obama took office. On May 20, 2022, another of the three original mixed-media HOPE works sold at auction for $735,000.
How to identify it
Hope Gold is small: the image is about 28 x 18 cm on a sheet of about 36 x 26 cm. It is far smaller than the 2008 HOPE campaign posters, of which 300,000 had been printed by October 2008.
Genuine impressions are signed, numbered out of 300 and, in at least some cases, dated '08' along the lower edge, and are usually sold with a certificate of authenticity from Obey Giant. MoMA records Modern Multiples as printer and Amanda Fairey as publisher; one auction catalog instead names Obey Giant, Los Angeles, as publisher and dates the print 2009.
Because it was given alongside the Artists for Obama portfolio, it is sometimes catalogued as 'from the Artists for Obama portfolio,' but the portfolio itself was an edition of 150 with 13 other artists' prints.
The numbers
- Medium
- Screenprint in colors
- Dimensions
- Image 28 x 18.1 cm; sheet 35.8 x 26 cm
- Edition size
- 300
- Printer and publisher
- Modern Multiples; Amanda Fairey
- Public collections
- Museum of Modern Art, New York (gift of Agnes Gund); Williams College Museum of Art
- Companion portfolio
- Artists for Obama, 13 prints, edition of 150, printed by Gemini G.E.L.
Timeline
Shepard Fairey is born in Charleston, South Carolina.
Fairey starts the 'Andre the Giant Has a Posse' sticker campaign at RISD.
Shepard and Amanda Fairey found Studio Number One.
Mannie Garcia takes the photograph at a Darfur media event; Fairey later works from the image.
Fairey designs the Obama poster in a day; the word 'progress' is changed to 'hope.'
The Democratic National Committee and Gemini G.E.L. announce the Artists for Obama donor portfolio; 300,000 HOPE posters have been printed.
Barack Obama is elected president.
The National Portrait Gallery acquires Fairey's hand-finished HOPE portrait.
The Obama Hope Gold screenprints are released to donors just after the inauguration.
Fairey and the news agency that owned the source photograph settle their copyright dispute.
Fairey is sentenced to probation, community service and a $25,000 fine for destroying evidence.
MoMA shows its impression in 'Studio Visit: Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund.'
An original mixed-media HOPE portrait sells at auction for $735,000.
Impression 79/300 sells at auction for $1,750.
Impression 36/300 sells at auction for $3,780.
The world in 2008
Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
A magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan, China, kills about 87,500 people.
The Summer Olympics open in Beijing.
Russia and Georgia go to war.
The Large Hadron Collider begins operating.
Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy.
Ten armed militants attack targets across Mumbai.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 13, 2022 | $1,750 | Sold at auctionImpression 79/300, catalogued as 2009, published by Obey Giant; estimate $2,000 to $3,000. |
| Aug 28, 2024 | $3,780 | Sold at auctionImpression 36/300, signed and dated '08', with OBEY Giant certificate; estimate $1,200 to $1,800. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Obama Hope (Gold), Artists for Obama portfolio is number 86 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (85 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The first version of the poster said 'progress,' not 'hope.'
- Fairey made the original design in a single day from a photo he found online.
- The Gold prints were the third and final edition of Fairey's HOPE prints of the president.
- The National Portrait Gallery acquired a HOPE portrait before Obama had even taken office.
- Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra and Frank Gehry were among the 13 artists in the donor portfolio this print accompanied.
- Fairey's 'Andre the Giant Has a Posse' stickers began as a student project at RISD in 1989.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026