The Great Bear

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For other uses, see Great Bear.

The Great Bear is an artwork by Simon Patterson produced in 1992. At first glance the work looks like the London Underground Tube map, but Patterson uses each line to represent groups of people, from scientists, saints and philosophers to comedians, explorers and footballers. He subverts the concept of maps and diagrams as authoritative sources, and challenges our assumption that they can be utilised without question by taking this iconic information source and adding his own idiosyncratic data to it.

The original edition of 100 was printed as a fundraiser for an independent gallery in London and were sold for £50 each. These are now worth several thousand pounds each, making them one of the most profitable artworks of recent years.

[edit] Examples

The Metropolitan Line is called Musicians Line. The main line runs between Telemann and Martin Heidegger. The branch lines runs to St.Joan, Corelli and Fontana
The Bakerloo line is marked as the Engineers Line, running between Orville and Wilbur Wright (Harrow & Wealdstone) and Barnes Wallis (Elephant & Castle).