Jim Fitzpatrick

Jim Fitzpatrick (born 1944) is an Irish artist. He is best known for elaborately detailed work inspired by the Irish Celtic artistic tradition. However, his most famous single piece is a two-tone portrait of Che Guevara created in 1968, based on a photo by Alberto Korda.

Early life Jim Fitzpatrick was born in December 1944 to James and Elizabeth Fitzpatrick (née O'Connor). His parents had married in the north Dublin suburb of Cabra in June 1943. During a period of childhood sickness with pleurisy, Fitzpatrick read and drew in bed, as well as his mother and great-aunt telling him stories of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Cú Chulainn and Fionn MacCumhaill. He was educated at the Franciscan College Gormanston, County Meath, just north of Dublin. His father was a photo-journalist and he is a grandson of political cartoonist Thomas Fitzpatrick.

Career

Fitzpatrick's earliest work was the graphic portrait of Che Guevara, which was based on the photograph by Alberto Korda, entitled Guerrillero Heroico, was taken on 5 March 1960. Fitzpatrick met Guevara 5 years earlier in Kilkee during Guevara's visit to trace his Irish ancestry.

Fitzpatrick has produced artwork for bands such as Thin Lizzy, providing the portraits of the band for their Vagabonds of the Western World album, then going on to illustrate the logo for 1975 album Fighting (frequently displayed onstage thereafter and used on compilation albums and merchandise) and their Jailbreak album in 1976, for Sinéad O'Connor's 2000 album Faith and Courage, for The Darkness' 2003 single "Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)", He was commissioned by CityJet in 2007 to create images reflecting Ireland's culture, mythology, history and landscapes.

In 2011, Fitzpatrick announced that he intended to copyright the iconic red and black Che Guevara graphic. He cited "crass commercial" use of the image for his decision and planned to hand over the copyright and all rights, in perpetuity, to the family of Guevara in Cuba. An Post released a stamp featuring Fitzpatrick's image of Guevara in 2017 to mark 50 years since its publication.

In June 2023, Fitzpatrick released Ancient Ireland, Land of Legend, his first portfolio in 40 years.

Meeting Guevara in Ireland According to Fitzpatrick, in 1963 while a teenage student at Gormanston College he worked a summer job at the Marine Hotel pub in Kilkee, the town of his mother's birth. One morning Che Guevara walked in with two Cubans. He asked Fitzpatrick what he should drink, and was recommended an Irish whiskey with water. Fitzpatrick immediately recognized him because of his interest in the Cuban Revolution. Knowing about the Irish diaspora and history in Argentina, Fitzpatrick asked Che vaguely about his roots. Che told Fitzpatrick that his grandmother was Irish and that his great-grandmother, Isabel, was from Galway, with other family being from County Cork.Guevara's father also bore the Norman-Irish surname "Lynch." Fitzpatrick describes Che as "curious" about Ireland "from a revolutionary point of view" and remarks that Che proclaimed his "great admiration" for the fact that, in his view, Ireland was the first country to "shake off the shackles of the British Empire". Apparently Che was stranded on an overnight flight from Moscow to Cuba and had touched down at Shannon Airport, where the Soviet airline Aeroflot had a refueling base. Unable to depart because of thick fog, Che and his accompanying Cubans took the day off for an "unofficial" visit. It was this experience, according to Fitzpatrick, that gave him the impetus to follow the future actions of Che, including his ill-fated mission to Bolivia.

Personal life Fitzpatrick was partnered and married to Deirdre for over twenty years; they later divorced. Fitzpatrick has lived on the Burrow Road in Sutton on the Howth peninsula since the 1970s, in an apartment which later became his studio, in a converted schoolmasters' house, and then back in the apartment. The Fitzpatricks had three children, two of whom are in business with the artist. His younger son, Redmond, issues prints of Fitzpatrick's work from California, while his daughter has produced a line of scarves, Lile, named for his grandmother and printed with his artwork.

Selected works Books The Book of Conquests 1978 p/b , 1991 p/b The Silver Arm (1981) The Children of Lir (with Michael Scott) (1992) Erinsaga. The Mythological Paintings of Jim FitzPatrick

Design Celtworld

Portfolios Celtia (1975) The Book of Conquests (1984) Ancient Ireland, Land of Legend (2023)