Che Guevara: Revolutionary and Icon

An iconic photo of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara was taken in 1960 that is now thought to be the most reproduced image in the history of photography. What comes to mind when you see this picture? Most likely words like “revolution” and “hero”; or ideas like anti-establishment and freedom. But would you think about vodka?

Che Guevara is a revealing look at the incredibly varied ways the photo and Che himself have been appropriated. From Che Gay T-shirts to psychedelic posters, tattoos to Warholesque fine art, ads for booze to photographs by Annie Liebowitz, this ever-present image has taken Che from heroic guerilla through Pop celebrity to a symbol of radical chic. The image has become an ideal of abstraction, and Che Guevara vividly demonstrates that the diverse ways in which it has been used can tell us quite a lot about our culture and ourselves.