The Great Bear (London Underground) (1991)

Simon Patterson

four colour offset lithograph print, glass and aluminium frame

Danum Gallery, Library and Museum, Doncaster

The Great Bear (London Underground) (1991)

Photo credit: Heritage Doncaster

Classification:

Materials:

Glass, Aluminium, Paper

Technique:

Lithograph

Dimensions:

109 x 134 x 5 cm

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1996

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Purchaser (1914-2008)

Ownership history:

Purchased from the Lisson Gallery, London by Cecily Lowenthal (1927-1997) for the Contemporary Art Society, with a grant from the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, 1993; presented to Doncaster Museum & Art Gallery, now Danum Gallery, Library and Museum (Heritage Doncaster), 1996

Relationship:

Cecily Lowenthal Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers Lisson Gallery, London Danum Gallery, Library and Museum, Doncaster

The Great Bear (1991) is a four colour offset lithograph mounted in an anodised aluminium frame. It is an altered version of the map of the London Underground created by Henry (Harry) C. Beck (1903-74) in 1931. Simon Patterson replaced the names of the underground stations with the names of engineers, philosophers, explorers, planets, journalists, footballers, musicians, film actors, saints, Italian artists, sinologues (Chinese scholars), comedians and 'Louis' (French kings). Each of these categories is listed next to a coloured line (representing the different train lines) at the bottom right of the image under the title 'Key to Lines'. The names on the map range from the obscure, known only to people with specialised knowledge - sinologues, for example - to the well known figures of popular culture - film actors and actresses and footballers. Patterson has not adhered strictly to his key, adding the names of politicians to the line representing journalists, painters to the line representing musicians and Henrys to the line of Louis.

All rights reserved. Any further use will need to be cleared with the rights holder. Permission granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited. The collection that owns this artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

For further information, please consult our section of our copyright policy.