The Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, acclaimed in international rock circles for his design work for Thin Lizzy and Sinéad O’Connor, is to transfer the copyright on his world-famous image of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara to the Guevara family. The poster was recently seen all over the world when it was held up to cameras during the revolutionary upheaval in Egypt.

Fitzpatrick, who was a close personal friend of Philip Lynott and worked on numerous projects with the Lizzy mainman, told Hot Press, “This image was originally created by me as a political act, as part of my outrage at the way Guevara was murdered. But it’s only since about 2004 that I’ve been acknowledged as its creator. As I’m getting older I want to do whatever’s necessary to preserve its integrity.
“I wanted it to be used copyright-free by anybody on the Left who wanted to use it for political purposes. It was never meant to be used as a commercial commodity, but it’s really suffered from crass commercial misuse over the years, including in one instance as part of a cigarette promotion. In fact, the Cuban ambassador pointed out to me another really objectionable example of a company using the image on the soles of shoes.”
The original 1968 design by Fitzpatrick was the classic red and black print of the long-haired revolutionary with his soldier’s beret and a single star. It was distributed copyright-free for use by revolutionary groups in Europe. It was immediately taken up by radical students, and became a ubiquitous presence on t-shirts and posters before manufacturers of products, including mugs and lingerie, and inevitably Cuban-themed restaurants began to cash in. “It’s been used all over Latin America in a political context,” Fitzpatrick says. “Morales in Bolivia used it in his political campaign, and it was used by Lua in Brazil, Chavez in Venezuela and lots of others. On the other hand, the commercial use of it by non-political organisations devalues it in a totally unacceptable way. I’ve always been opposed to that. It was never about making money.”
The Irishman’s design was based on a photograph by the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda, who took it when Guevara was attending a funeral in Havana. Later, the photographer successfully sued a British advertising agency for using a version of the image in a marketing campaign for a brand of vodka. His daughter also prevented it being misappropriated by opponents of the Cuban regime. As Fitzpatrick explains, “I was thinking of having the rights used to generate income for Cuban children’s hospitals. I had discussions with the Cuban ambassador, but ironically I found I was talking to a woman whose government has the finest medical services for children in the world, while I’m coming from the land of the HSE! I had talks with the Cuban-Ireland Support Group and it became obvious that the smartest thing to do would be to hand-over the rights to the Guevara family as they’ll know best what to do with it”.
When that formality has been achieved, Fitzpatrick will retain only the right to produce and sell a limited edition, numbered print of the image. “But”, he added, “I don’t want any money from the Guevara family for the image rights and they’ve agreed to all this. In fact, Aleida, Guevara’s daughter, has been photographed with the limited edition print that I presented to her. Here in Ireland I’ve had enormous help from Michael Mulcahy, who is senior counsel and also a TD. It’s his ambition to see that the legal formalities are done, hopefully by September when I’ve been invited to Cuba for the opening of the Che Guevara Cultural Centre. However, these things can take time.”
Jim believes that Guevara still has relevance today. “Put it this way,” he says, “if you held this image aloft in Tripoli in Libya today, you’d have your head blown off! So the world hasn’t changed all that much since this image was created in the late 1960s! That’s how potent it is.”

The Jim Fitzpatrick image of Che Guevara can be viewed and purchased through the Jim Fitzpatrick gallery on Facebook. Original artwork for Thin Lizzy albums will be shown as part of the Philip Lynott Exhibition, opening in Dublin on March 4. See also The Mad Hatter’s Box, Page 11