Christ to Coke – How Image Becomes an Icon

Image, branding, and logos are obsessions of our age and dominate the media. Christ to Coke is the first book to look at all the main types of visual icons through well known examples, both historical and contemporary, to see how they arose and how they continue to function. We encounter the often weird and wonderful ways that they become transformed in a variety of ways and contexts. How, for example, has the communist revolutionary Che become a romantic hero for middle-class teenagers? The stock image of Christ's face is the founding icon - literally, since he was the central subject of early icon painting. Some of the icons that follow are general, like the cross, the lion and the heart-shape. Some are specific such as the Mona Lisa, Che Guevara and the famous photograph of the napalmed girl in Vietnam. The stories of these icons are told by Kemp in a vivid and personal manner.

Martin Kemp is Emeritus Research Professor in the History of Art at Oxford University.  He has written and broadcast extensively on imagery in art and science from the Renaissance to the present day and is a leading expert on the art of  Leonardo da Vinci. 

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