THE GREAT BEAR

© The Artist

THE GREAT BEAR 1992

Simon Patterson (1967 – )

Details

Dimension
109.2 X 134.6 CM
Media
LITHOGRAPH
Accession number
P6725

Summary

The Great Bear, which is the popular name given to a stellar constellation near the North Pole, is the title of Simon Patterson’s authentically reproduced map of the London Underground system. Although he has retained Harry Beck’s original design of 1931, all the station names on each colour coded line have been replaced by categories of names of historical figures and famous personalities. Thus on the Bakerloo (brown) line all stops are named after engineers, one branch of the Northern (black) after musicians, the other after film actors. There appears to be a rigorous if cryptic logic to the system until intersections meet and Geoff Hurst on the ‘Footballers’ line finds himself next to William Randolph Hearst on the ‘Louis’ line and the associations disintegrate into an idiosyncratic randomness.