Joe Tilson, R.A. (b. 1928)

Transparency, Che Guevara A, is the first in an edition of six works that reproduce an image of Che Guevara but are painted in different colours, essentially making them unique works. It’s not surprising that Tilson chose revolutionary red for the first in the series, while Transparency, Che Guevara D (Tate, London) for example is painted gold. Tilson began experimenting with printmaking techniques in the 1960s as a method of reproducing popular and consumer imagery that could be manipulated in both scale and appearance. To other artists, printing was a discipline in its own right that could be used to replicate identical images. Tilson was keen to explore the blurring of these traditional artistic categories by combining printing, painting and sculpture in work from this period. Tilson has housed the image in a wooden frame with the lettering ‘MADE IN ENGLAND’, a phrase synonymous with quality, tradition and craftsmanship. This contrasts with the iconic image of Che as an anti-establishment revolutionary and touches on Tilson’s interests, and wider Pop ideals, of a new order and the breaking down of preconceived structures in art and culture. The new ‘Made in England’.