The Great Bear (lithograph)
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The Great Bear is a 1992 lithograph by Simon Patterson. The work resembles the London Underground Tube map, but Patterson uses each line to represent notable but seemingly random people (and planets) grouped into categories corresponding to each Tube line.
The work is in an edition of 50 prints alongside 15 artist's proofs, all framed with an anodised aluminium frame just like real Tube maps.[1] The copyright of the work is shared between the artist and London Underground from whom the artist obtained permission after protracted negotiation.[citation needed]
The name 'Great Bear' references the Ursa Major constellation. The artist may be evoking a similarity between the Tube map and maps of the stars, with the lines forming constellations between them.
Copies of The Great Bear can be found in the Tate Gallery (P77880) and the London Transport Museum (2003/12651).
The full categories, presented in a key at the bottom left of the map, are:
- Engineers as the Bakerloo Line
- "Louis" (French Kings) as the Central Line
- Philosophers as the Circle Line
- Explorers as the District Line
- Planets as the East London Line
- Journalists as the Hammersmith and City Line
- Footballers as the Jubilee Line
- Musicians as the Metropolitan Line
- Film actors as the Northern Line
- Saints as the Piccadilly Line
- Italian artists as the Victoria Line
- Sinologues as the Docklands Light Railway
- Comedians as the North London Line
