Tag Archives: icon

Charlie Chaplin: Icon Behind the Wall

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This screenshot shows Charlie Chaplin in his most famous persona of “the tramp” in the 1914 film, Kid Auto Races at Venice. At this time, Chaplin was 25 years old and then was his second film. His fame and iconic look–baggy pants and bowler hat–spread quickly. Not only did they spread fast and quickly, but he endures as an avant-garde icon in parts of the world far from Hollywood.

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My friend took this picture on the street in Tiblisi, Georgia two months ago–100 years after Kid Auto Races. To be familiar with Chaplin today is hardly surprising. But Chaplin has a life as an avant-garde symbol dating from his first film. Despite two World Wars followed by a Cold War, Chaplin infiltrated deep into Russia and Eastern Europe, becoming an avant-garde icon even as access to films was limited and sporadic. Chaplin comes up surprisingly often in avant-garde journals, designs, and collages–adding an often-lacking bathos and humor.

Barbara Stepanova, Kino Foto, 1922

Barbara Stepanova, Kino Foto, 1922 (Russia)

Evzen Markalous_Laughter_1926

Evzen Markalous, Laughter, 1926 (Czechoslovakia)

M. Berman, Charlie III, 1928 (Poland)

M. Berman, Charlie III, 1928 (Poland)

 

 

 

Color Comparison: Byzantine in Serbia, Modern in Stockholm

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Pure color resonance from the Byzantine mosaics of the Fruska Gora monasteries of northern Serbia and Yves Klien’s monochromatic canvases at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

These frescoes at the Velika Remeta monastery are the newest I saw of the three monasteries I visited that day. They were all Serbian Orthodox churches that had moved to these lush rolling hills to escape the Ottoman invasions. The old churches were later surrounded, quite close up, by newer cloisters, where monks, nuns, or sometimes both together, always led by a male priest, cared for the church and community. In the first one the bright, bold frescoes were relatively new, but still in the flat Byzantine style and surrounding a valuable icon of the three-handed Virgin Mary. I saw copies of this icon in the next two monasteries as well,  all after from the same original that is apparently very special and located in present-day Ukraine. The continuity of tradition was striking.

When I was in Stockholm a few weeks later, the blues and golds reminded me forcefully of the Orthodox church decoration I had seen, particularly this first one.

Everywhere El Guerrillero Heroico

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I didn’t buy the T-shirt, but that doesn’t mean the iconic image of Ernesto “Che” Guevara wasn’t before my eyes everywhere I went the past 10 days. Che has become the definitive symbol of rebellion, a legendary leader of revolution, and in this widely reproduced image a 20th c. pop culture icon.

At the right is the popularized cropped version of Guerrillero Heroico, as the photograph taken by Cuban State Photographer Alberto Korda during a speech by Castro at the funeral for the victims of the La Coubre explosion in Havana, Cuba. It was taken on March 5, 1960 and Korda willingly shared the image when anybody he could- gratis- in order to share the ideals of Che. Korda has said that when he shot the picture he was drawn to Guevara’s expression of “absolute implacability” as well as anger and pain.


Slogans, such as “Hasta la victoria sempre” and “una de las mas nobles formas de servir a la Patria es consagrarse al trabajo,” appear next to the image, restating his ideals and beliefs in the revolution. By the end of the 1960s, mass produced posters and lithographs and the adoption of the image by Pop artists, turned the image of the charismatic and controversial leader into a cultural icon around the world. His death in Bolivia in 1967 elevated his status to that of a martyr, and his popularity in Cuba, where his family still resides, remains as high as ever. This image of him was first seen in Cuba at his funeral, and since proliferated there as it has in the rest of the world.