Viva Che 1968! Che Guevara Poster Print Royal Purple Variation

Description

This is a unique opportunity to own one of the most iconic images of all time.

You know the Che image from all the T-shirts, posters, album covers and Warhol prints. All of these are derived from my own original 1968 Viva Che poster.

For the first time, I have made color variations of the original Viva Che poster print in a very limited edition print run. These prints are exact facsimiles of my original 1968 Viva Che poster art. It is printed in the same manner as the original, old-fashioned silk screen printing.

This is a signed and numbered extremely limited edition run of only 45.

A little history of the Viva Che 1968 poster print of Ernesto Che Guevara by Jim Fitzpatrick.
The art of Jim Fitzpatrick has never been less than controversial. His earliest work, the legendary Che Guevara poster of May 1968 published just after his death in Bolivia, became the iconic image of the anti-Vietnam war protests worldwide and today is the symbol of F.A.R.C. in Columbia and the Zapatistas of Mexico in their fight for freedom and autonomy.
“It’s an odd world.” says the artist, “The Che Guevara poster became a worldwide phenomenon and caused outrage everywhere it appeared. Because the various posters of Che I produced were based on a photograph by a then-unknown Cuban photographer plus the fact that I had met him (see Biography section ), idolized him and of course wanted to make sure he was never forgotten I made all the Guevara images copyright free. That’s how it spread everywhere so quickly.
The reaction was extraordinary. The original poster art and an oil painting I intended using as a print went on tour after being exhibited at the Lisson Gallery in London and guess what? -they both ‘disappeared’ in Eastern Europe where an individualistic idealist like Che was anathema to their corrupt regimes. Reaction in the west was about the same: my distributor in Spain was actually arrested by Franco’s secret police!
But Ireland was the weirdest: Every shop that stocked the poster was threatened or harassed: in the very fashionable Brown Thomas of Grafton Street, which sold cards and posters in those faraway days, a well-turned out lady bought the entire stock, tore them all to pieces in front of the astonished staff and walked out ! I remember the late Ms. O’Flaherty and Ms. King of Parsons Bookshop on Baggot Street bridge, who were great supporters of my art -as they were of every artist and writer in Dublin – getting really upset at the hostility directed towards the poster, which hung proudly in their front window. Despite threats to break their windows they refused to take it down and I was so proud every time I passed that little shop run by two most educated, kind and charming Dubliners who devoted their lives to the artists and writers of this city. “