When most people in Los Angeles see a street stencil of the Monopoly Man, they think of Alec Monopoly.
But some new Monopoly Man stencils have been showing up on the streets of LA, and these are not from Alec Monopoly. Think these new Monopoly Men are from a clothing company? Its the same logo as in a fist (shown below).
This brings to light the danger of artists taking on a famous icon as a signature image. Like with the multiple artists and car dealership using the Felix name and logo in Los Angeles, even if you get up a shit ton and earn a strong identity with the icon, like Alec's Monopoly Man, its never really yours.
There is no originality when it comes to using iconic characters let alone hardly any creativity as well. The way I see it, people buy alec's "fine art" pieces solely for the icon character rather then the talent it takes to make the piece. Seems like here in LA we have quite a few artists that have had some success in the fine art/ gallery scene because they use icon characters.Originality used to be number one priority. Doesn't seem that way lately. - Rise Above the Heard
ReplyDeleteHasbro and Crooks and Castles paid the artist to do these. He had rights to the character. Alec monopoly does not. Alec is the one biting.
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