Filthy Lucre Ain't Nothing New

Dimensions: 24 x 18 Inches

Medium: Screenprint on cream Speckletone Paper

Provenance: Hand-signed, numbered and dated by Shepard Fairey. Comes with Verisart certificate of authenticity from Obey Giant. 

Edition: Limited Edition of 500 (#39/500)

Year: 2026

Condition: Excellent

ABOUT THE ART

"Filthy Lucre Ain’t Nothing New is an exploration of the complicated seduction and repulsion of money. The exhibition title comes from the Sex Pistol’s song “The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle.” The full lyric goes: “Filthy lucre ain’t nothing new…we’re all just cash from chaos.” The Sex Pistols were unashamed of swindling the rock ’n’ roll industry as a coup benefitting themselves and the rowdy punk rock revolution. They asserted that all cultural output eventually becomes a commodified product under capitalism, so why not be a winner in a system within which no one is innocent?

My choice of making art on a 1937 Packard was inspired by its aesthetic similarity to a Rolls-Royce Phantom of the same era. In a collaboration with Jamie Reid, the graphic artist for the Sex Pistols, I created an illustration of a Rolls-Royce Phantom on fire to proclaim the dead end of classism, ostentatious luxury, and the empire mentality. In this sense, painting with gold on a 1937 Packard to create a high-value, beautiful automotive art object raises questions about creativity and capitalism, and becomes uncomfortably paradoxical. Hopefully, this discomfort forces the audience to wrestle with the complex nature of capitalism itself."

-Shepard Fairey

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (…OBEY…) sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His work became more widely known in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, specifically his Barack Obama "Hope" poster.

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists. His work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.