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Christ to Coke
How Image Becomes Icon
Martin Kemp
392 pages
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165 colour halftones
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246x189mm
978-0-19-958111-5
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Hardback
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13 October 2011
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- All the main types of visual icon brought together and illuminated in one book - for the first time
- Takes eleven supreme and mega-famous examples, from Christ to the Coke bottle, weaving a skilful and entertaining narrative around each one
- Shows the often weird and wonderful ways in which these images have become transformed in an astonishing variety of contexts, from the Mona Lisa to the double helix of DNA
- Addresses the fundamental conundrum of what it is that iconic images have in common
Image, branding, and logos are obsessions of our age. Iconic images dominate the media.
Christ to Coke is the first book to look at all the main types of visual icons. It does so via eleven supreme and mega-famous examples, both historical and contemporary, to see how they arose and how they continue to function. Along the way, we encounter the often weird and wonderful ways that they become transformed in an astonishing variety of ways and contexts. How, for example, has the communist revolutionary Che become a romantic hero for middle-class teenagers?
The stock image of Christ's face is
the founding icon - literally, since he was the central subject of early icon painting. Some of the icons that follow are general, like the cross, the lion, and the heart-shape. Some are specific, such as the Mona Lisa, Che Guevara, and the famous photograph of the napalmed girl in Vietnam. The American flag, the "Stars and Stripes", does not quite fit into either category. Modern icons come from commerce, led by the Coca-Cola bottle, and from science, most notably the double helix of DNA and Einstein's famous equation E=mc2.
The stories, researched using the skills of a leading visual historian, are told in a vivid and personal manner. Some are funny; some are deeply moving; some are highly improbable; some centre on popular fame; others are based on the most
profound ideas in science. The diversity is extraordinary. There is no set formula, but do the images share anything in common?
So famous are the images that every reader is an expert in their own right and will be entertained and challenged by the narratives that Martin Kemp skilfully weaves around them.Readership: All those interested in image, branding, and logos - and how iconic images function
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Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of the History of Art, University of Oxford Martin Kemp FBA is Emeritus Professor in the History of Art at Trinity College, Oxford University. He has written, broadcast and curated exhibitions on imagery in art and science from the Renaissance to the present day, including The Science of Art. Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (1992), The Human Animal in Western Art and Science (2007), Leonardo, and the prize-winning Leonardo da Vinci. The marvellous works of nature and man (1989 and 2006). His book on the newly discovered Leonardo portrait, La Bella Principessa, written with Pascal Cotte, was published in 2010.
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"Leonardo expert Kemp (emer., Oxford Univ.) offers a deeply idiosyncratic but consistently engaging book that investigates what makes an image take on the extraordinary recognizability, transhistorical significance, and rich and diverse associations that identify it as an icon." - E. Hutchinson "written in a thoughtful but conversational style ... and loaded with gorgeous images ... those curious about how images 'go viral', to borrow a contemporary term, will find themselves hooked." - ArtInfo "an essential effort to understand who we came to worship what we worship and why the iconography of consumerism has such an enduring hold on us, whether or not we want to admit it." - The
Atlantic.com "Recommended for all those interested in iconography, art history, advertising, and branding." - Library Journal "Ostensibly dedicated to how an image becomes an icon, this fascinating book is mostly about how a well-trained, curious mind pusues its many enthusiasms and examines its place in time and history." - ARTnews "an excellent present for erudite friends" - Literary Review
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Preface and Acknowledgements
List of Plates
Introduction
1: Christ. The True Icon
2: The Cross
3: The Heart
4: The Lion
5: Mona Lisa
6: Che
7: Napalmed and Naked
8: Stars and Stripes
9: Coke. The Bottle
10: DNA
11: E=mc2
12: Fuzzy Formulas
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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