The Associated Press has filed an answer and a countersuit against artist Shepard Fairey, announced yesterday in a press release.

Here’s the back story: 39-year-old Fairey created a red and blue HOPE Obama portrait, which became an iconic image during the 2008 presidential election. That same image then showed up on all kinds of Obama paraphernalia. TIME Magazine even used that portrait on their cover for their “Person of the Year” issue.

The original, previously owned by collectors Heather and Tony Podesta of Washington, D.C., was donated to the National Portrait Gallery on January 17th.

The Associated Press got into a tizzy: “The photograph used in the poster is an AP photo, and its use required permission from AP,” wrote Paul Colford, AP’s director of media relations, in an earlier press release dated February 4.

Then Fairey got into a tizzy and filed a suit against the AP, claiming that his use of an AP photo did not violate copyright laws.

And so it goes on and on… AP continues to defend its stance.

This is not Fairey’s first brush with copyright issues, plagiarism and the like. A few critics have had a couple of things to say about his work. Print Magazine published a piece by Milton Glaser specifically addressing Fairey’s art and plagiarism.

And Fairey’s solo exhibit in December 2007 in Los Angeles, prompted criticism from artist Mark Vallen. Vallen argues that much of Fairey’s work is copied from other artists, including Roy Lichtenstein and Koloman Moser.

There are a number of convincing examples, but it’s hard to say if Fairey’s work exhibits strong influence from certain styles and artists, or if it is flat-out plagiarism. (For example, Vallen draws attention to similarities between one of Fairey’s posters and one from the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It could be that Fairey finds such imagery inspiring…).

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