Christ to Coke

How does an image become iconic? In this book, the author, an art historian offers a look at the main types of visual icons. This work illuminates eleven universally recognized images, both historical and contemporary, to see how they arose and how they continue to function in our culture. It begins with the stock image of Christ's face, the founding icon, literally, since he was the central subject of early Christian icons. Some of the icons that follow are general, like the cross, the lion, and the heart-shape (as in "I heart New York"). Some are specific, such as the Mona Lisa, Che Guevara, and the famous photograph of the napalmed girl in Vietnam. Other modern icons come from politics, such as the American flag (the "Stars and Stripes"), from business, led by the Coca-Cola bottle, and from science, most notably the double helix of DNA and Einstein's famous equation E=mc2. Researched by a visual historian, the stories of these icons are funny; some are deeply moving; some are highly improbable; some center on popular fame; others are based on the most profound ideas in science. The diversity is extraordinary. Along the way, we encounter the often weird and wonderful ways that these images adapt to an astonishing variety of ways and contexts.