A used yellow screen printing screen with a washed out green image of the Artist as Che Guevara.

Screen Che

Faded screen ink, silkscreen & aluminium

Icons

Faces

Revolution

Appropriation

Silkscreen

A used yellow screen printing screen with a washed out green image of the Artist as Che Guevara.

A used white screen printing screen with a washed out black image of the Artist as Andy Warhol over a washed out black image of the Artist as Che Guevara.

Fright Che

Warhol

A used white screen printing screen with a washed out black image of the Artist as Andy Warhol over a washed out black image of the Artist as Che Guevara.

A print of the Artist as Che Guevara in black on a grey background. Printed in the style of an Andy Warhol silkscreen.

Che Black on Grey

Acrylic silkscreen on paper

A print of the Artist as Che Guevara in black on a grey background. Printed in the style of an Andy Warhol silkscreen.

A used yellow screen printing screen with a washed out black image of the Artist as Che Guevara.

Ghost Che

A used yellow screen printing screen with a washed out black image of the Artist as Che Guevara.

Gavin Turk as Che in black on yellow

Che on Yellow Background

Silkscreen ink and metallic paint on canvas

A print of the Artist as Che Guevara in the middle of a black, blue and earth orange Union Jack with the silver image of Guevara over painted with cracked glass.

God Save Che Guevara (Cracked)

Flags

A print of the Artist as Che Guevara in the middle of a black, blue and earth orange Union Jack with the silver image of Guevara over painted with cracked glass.

Two prints of the Artist as Che Guevara in black on a red background. Printed in the style of an Andy Warhol silkscreen.Gavin first made a series of artworks based on revolutionaries from 1998 to 2000. Revolutionaries being those people who through their championing of the &lsquo;other&rsquo; become people who define the status quo. Che Guevara whose early death added to his ever-growing mythology has become one of the most all pervasive symbols of anti-establishment and counter culture throughout the world. Every western teenager who is reacting against the authority of their parents, or of the state, has a poster of Che Guevara on their bedroom wall. The image is taken from the photograph by Alberto Korda in 1957. In Double Red Che the artist prints himself as Che Guevara in the Andy Warhol factory style, accentuating the process of reproduction.

Double Red Che

Two prints of the Artist as Che Guevara in black on a red background. Printed in the style of an Andy Warhol silkscreen.

Four prints of the artist as Che Guevara in blue, brown, grey and orange on a background of various blue and brown hues.

Four Che, Seven Hues

Four prints of the artist as Che Guevara in blue, brown, grey and orange on a background of various blue and brown hues.

A print of the Artist as Che Guevara in blue on a brown background. Printed in the style of an Andy Warhol silkscreen.

Blue on Brown Che

A print of the Artist as Che Guevara in blue on a brown background. Printed in the style of an Andy Warhol silkscreen.

A print of the Artist as Che Guevara in white on a white background. Printed in the style of an Andy Warhol silkscreenThe Artist made a series of artworks based on revolutionaries from 1998 to 2000. First he made a self-portrait waxwork as the French revolution activist Marat lying (perhaps) dead, assassinated in the bath where he was suffering from an acute skin condition. Then he made a waxwork of Che Guevara caught like a specimen, trapped in a glass case with his army fatigues and his gun. This figure was posed in the same stance as the 'Pop', 1993, the first of the Artist's works to be bought by the Saatchi Collection. This is a waxwork self-portrait of Sid Vicious singing 'My Way' whilst posed as Elvis in the Andy Warhol 'Triple Elvis' picture. Finally he made a morbid waxwork self-portrait as Che Guevera after his assassination in Bolivia. The pose of the figure was taken from the moment when the Bolivians had redressed his body to resemble the classic media image of Che. This image was taken from the photograph taken by Albert Korda in 1957. Che Guevara is a heroic figure whose early death added to his ever-growing mythology. The Artist is interested in him because he has become one of the most famous and all pervasive symbols of anti-establishment and counter culture throughout the world. Every western teenager who is reacting against the authority of their parents or of the state has a poster of Che Guevara up on their bedroom wall. Many political movements have appropriated the image for their cause: even pacifist causes such as the recent Anti-war march carried images of Che Guevara, even though he is always pictured in army fatigues carrying weapons about to go on some rebel offensive or other. During this period the Artist made some images for posters and some screen prints of himself as Che Gavara (sic), in the Andy Warhol factory style - with colours overlaid with colours - the image Warhol never made. Gavara (White on White)' is one of those images, this time an almost invisible, creamy white image on a white background. Camouflaged in the white of the gallery, strangely deathlike and neutral.

Che Gavara White on White

A print of the Artist as Che Guevara in white on a white background. Printed in the style of an Andy Warhol silkscreen

A waxwork of Che Guevara based on the photograph famously taken to prove his death.

Alberto Korda’s famous 1960 photograph of Cuban revolutionary hero, Che Guevara, has come to stand for revolution in all its forms. A second famous image of Che, on which Turk’s ‘Death of Che’ is based, was taken in 1967 by the CIA-led Bolivian troops that executed him. For this photograph the soldiers dressed Che’s dead body in his military fatigues and propped up his head to mimic the Korda image. In Turk’s recreation, the artist plays the role of the revolutionary martyr, connecting the political use of Che’s image with that of Marat’s in his previous waxwork, ‘Death of Marat’.

Death of Che (2)

Waxwork & concrete

Death

Fool

Outsider

Sculpture

A waxwork of Che Guevara based on the photograph famously taken to prove his death.

Death of Che

A poster of the Artist as Che Guevara, repeated four times in they style of an Andy Warhol screenprint. Originally made as an advertising poster.The inspiration behind Turk&rsquo;s Che Gavara art works is the Alberta Korda photograph of the infamous Argentinean freedom fighter whose wild hair and beard, guerrilla beret and long distance stare came to personify the ultimate symbol of rebellion. Interested in the role of the outsider but also, how images and symbols are reduced to clich&eacute; through reproduction and repetition, Turk&rsquo;s Guevara is transformed into a Warholian screen print, where the formerly rebellious is re-appropriated as clich&eacute;. But this Che is also given the &ldquo;Gav&rdquo; treatment, with Turk&rsquo;s face replacing that of the Marxist hero as he continues his exploration of the uneasy relationship between artist/outsider and the market, advertising, celebrity and branding.

Che Gavara

A poster of the Artist as Che Guevara, repeated four times in they style of an Andy Warhol screenprint. Originally made as an advertising poster.

A poster of Elvis Presley with a Che Guevara style hat painted on by the Artist.

Hasta La Victoria Siempre (Elvis on summer holiday with Che Beret)

Acrylic ink on printed paper

Elvis

Work on paper

A poster of Elvis Presley with a Che Guevara style hat painted on by the Artist.