[NYTr] Che: Artist Who Created Silkscreened Korda Photo Added His Initial

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

A bit of trivia on the famous Korda photo and the artist who created
the now-iconic silkscreen of it.

The Scotsman - Oct 7, 2007
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1610232007

Artist reveals his guerrilla tactics with iconic image's secret mark

Jim Fitzpatrick hid his initial, a reversed F on the shoulder of his
image of Che Guevara, which became one of the world's most recognisable
pieces of art.

By ALICE WYLLIE

IT IS one of the most instantly recognisable images in the world and
has adorned the walls of countless student dormitories and appeared on
millions of T-shirts.

But yesterday, nearly 40 years after it was first made, the artist who
created the black, white and red image of the Argentine revolutionary
Che Guevara revealed that the image hides a secret.

Last night, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Guevara's death, Jim
Fitzpatrick, the Irish artist who created the image in 1968 from a
photograph taken by Alberto Korda, told The Scotsman he had hidden the
letter 'F' for Fitzpatrick in Guevara's shoulder to identify the work
as his own.

He said: "I wanted the image to be as widely distributed as possible,
but I wanted there to be a bit of me in there.

"I made a couple of changes to Korda's photograph, raising Che's eyes
more and adding my initial. I'm a bit mischievous, so I never told
anyone."

Mr Fitzpatrick said he decided to create the image shortly after
Guevara's death in 1967 as he was inspired by the revolutionary's
ideals and outraged by his murder. It went on to become the most
reproduced image in the history of photography, a development Mr
Fitzpatrick "could never have imagined".

Despite having created an image that rivals Leonardo da Vinci's Mona
Lisa in terms of fame, Mr Fitzpatrick remains relatively unknown. He
lives and works in Dublin, producing Celtic artwork, and has created
designs for the album sleeves of artists including Sinead O'Connor and
Thin Lizzy.

Now that his secret is out, Mr Fitzpatrick has highlighted the hidden
'F' on his Flickr website.

He said: "I love the picture and wherever I am in the world, if I see
it, I take a photo of it.I always have a chuckle when I see that little
'F'. I know that it's mine."

The image has been utilised by brands including Nike and Smirnoff, but
Mr Fitzpatrick has never claimed copyright on it, saying to do so would
be to contradict Guevara's ideals. It has appeared on album covers and
has featured in the work of a several artists including Andy Warhol,
who reproduced it for one of his pop art images.

Mr Fitzpatrick said: "I was really flattered when Warhol used it. I
thought it was really funny that I could see my initial all over his
work, and nobody knew it but me."

Ellen McBride, chief executive of EMB Graphics in Aberfeldy, said:
"I've never known the artist hid his initial in there. It's natural to
want to sign your work, but it's not so easy for a graphic designer. I
sometimes hide a little emblem in my work so I can look at it and know
it's mine, but never tell anyone. It's nice to have that little
secret." SIGNATURE PIECES

ARTIST Jackson Pollock famously did not sign his abstract expressionist
paintings.

Instead, he numbered them in a bid to move art lovers away from the
desire to see "images" in his work. When art dealers discover a Pollock
work with a signature they tend to consider it a fake or as defaced by
a well-meaning enthusiast.

James McNeill Whistler, the British-based artist most famous for the
work known as Whistler's Mother, used a butterfly as his signature. He
chose the stylised image to indicate the entire composition of a
painting was crucial to him, and sometimes painted the butterfly on the
frame rather than ruin the composition.

Vincent Van Gogh used only his first name and Hieronymus Bosch signed
his work "Bosch" after his birthplace, even though his real surname was
van Aken.