“The Scream” by Edvard Munch broke the world record for priciest artwork sold at auction yesterday, fetching $119.9 million at Sotheby’s in New York City. ... Munch’s painting is ranked in global polls as the second-most identifiable icon, after the“Mona Lisa” and before Che Guevara’s face.Che? Is that a joke? Here is what a Russian immigrant professor says about him:
Che Guevara is one of the few communist leaders who still has a broad following in the West. Go to any college campus or hip neighborhood and you’ll see plenty of Che T-shirts, Che posters, and even the occasional Che cell phone message. This is extremely unfortunate, since Che was in fact a brutal mass murderer and terrorist, ...Wow, I would not have guessed that he is so widely recognized.
Osama Bin Laden and Mao Tse-tung also have widely recognized images, but they are recognized as evil leaders. What is Che recognized for? Do all those people know what a criminal he was?
Che is widely recognized in the UK by baby boomers, but I'm not sure about younger generations.
ReplyDeleteWhether people also know what he was, I'm not so sure.