Steve McQueen (artist)
Steven Rodney "Steve" McQueen CBE (born 1969) is a British artist and filmmaker. He is a winner of the Golden Camera at the Cannes Film Festival, a Turner Prize and BAFTA.
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[edit] Early years
Born in London, McQueen grew up in West London and went to Drayton Manor High School. He was a keen footballer, turning out for the St. Georges Colts football team. He did an art A level at Hammersmith and West London College, then studied art and design at Chelsea College of Art and Design and then fine art at Goldsmiths College where he first became interested in film. He left Goldsmiths in 1993 and then studied briefly at the Tisch School in New York City. He found the approach there not experimental enough for him, however, complaining that "they wouldn't let you throw the camera up in the air".[1]
[edit] Career
McQueen's films, which are typically projected onto one or more walls of an enclosed space in an art gallery, are often in black and white and minimalist. He has cited the influence of the nouvelle vague and the films of Andy Warhol.[2] He often appears in the films himself.
His first major work was Bear (1993), in which two naked men (one of them McQueen) exchange a series of glances which might be taken to be flirtatious or threatening.[3] One of his best known works, Deadpan (1997), is a restaging of a Buster Keaton stunt in which a house collapses around McQueen who is left unscathed because he is standing where there is a missing window.[4][5]
As well as being in black and white, both these films are silent. The first of McQueen's films to use sound was also the first to use multiple images: Drumroll (1998). This was made with three cameras, two mounted to the sides, and one to the front of an oil drum which McQueen rolled through the streets of Manhattan. The resulting films are projected on three walls of an enclosed space. McQueen has also made sculptures such as White Elephant (1998) and photographs.
He won the Turner Prize in 1999, although much of the publicity went to Tracey Emin, who was also a nominee.
In 2006, he went to Iraq as an official war artist. The following year he presented Queen and Country, a piece which commemorated the deaths of British soldiers who died in the Iraq War by presenting their portraits as a sheet of stamps.[6]
His 2007 film, Gravesend, depicted the process of Coltan refinement and production. Gravesend premiered at The Renaissance Society in the United States.[7]
His 2008 film Hunger, about the 1981 Irish hunger strike, premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.[8] McQueen received the Caméra d'Or (first-time director) Award at Cannes.[9] The film was also awarded the inaugural Sydney Film Festival Prize, for "its controlled clarity of vision, its extraordinary detail and bravery, the dedication of its cast and the power and resonance of its humanity".[10] The film also won the 2008 Diesel Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The award is voted on by the press attending the festival.[11] Hunger also won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for a New Generation film in 2008 and the best film prize at the London Evening Standard Film Awards in 2009.[12]
McQueen represented Britain at the 2009 Venice Biennale.[13]
Steve McQueen is represented by Thomas Dane Gallery, London, and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris. He lives and works in Amsterdam and London.
McQueen has been tapped to direct Fela, a biopic about the Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.[14][15]
Already an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to the visual arts.[16][17]
McQueen's second major theatrical release, Shame, is set in New York City.
[edit] Films
| Year | Film | Credited as | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Producer | Writer | Actor | Role | ||
| 2008 | Hunger | Yes | Yes | |||
| 2011 | Shame | Yes | Yes | |||
| 2012 | Twelve Years a Slave | Yes | Yes | |||
[edit] References
- ^ "Steve McQueen: Profile". BBC News. December 1, 1999. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/544419.stm. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
- ^ Arifa Akbar. "The British film industry has lost its edge, says BFI boss". The Independent, Friday, 2 April 2010.
- ^ David Frankel "Steve McQueen - Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York". ArtForum. FindArticles.com. 25 July 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_n3_v36/ai_20381888/
- ^ http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/deadpan/
- ^ Andrew Gellatly. Frieze Magazine. Issue 46 (May 1999).
- ^ "Last Post". Guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/mar/12/iraq.art. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
- ^ The Renaissance Society
- ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (May 12, 2008). "Bobby Sands screens at Cannes". London: The Guardian. http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2279349,00.html. Retrieved 05-11 2008.
- ^ Winners at the 61st Cannes Film Festival - Yahoo! News
- ^ Sydney Film Festival: Official Competition winner
- ^ "Family dramas, IRA prisoner film win big at TIFF". CBC News. September 13, 2008. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tiff/story/2008/09/13/tiff-awards.html.
- ^ "Standard success for Sands movie". BBC News. February 1, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7864035.stm. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
- ^ Charlotte Higgins, McQueen will represent Britain at Venice Biennale, The Guardian, June 25, 2008.
- ^ Michael Fleming and Ali Jaafar, Focus to film 'Fela' feature, Variety, December 7, 2009.
- ^ Ben Child, Steve McQueen to Direct Fela Kuti Biopic, The Guardian, December 8, 2009.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59647. p. 8. 31 December 2010.
- ^ New Year Honours for Lennox, Suchet, Hancock and Webb
[edit] Further reading
- Brockington, Horace. "Logical Anonymity: Lorna Simpson, Steve McQueen, Stan Douglas." International Review of African American Art 15 No. 3 (1998): 20-29.
- Demos, TJ. "The Art of Darkness: on Steve McQueen." October No. 114 (Fall 2005): 61-89.
- Demos, TJ. "Giardini: A Fairytale." In Steve McQueen (British Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2009).
[edit] External links
- Steve McQueen at the Internet Movie Database
- Interview with Steve McQueen, MUBI
- Thomas Dane Gallery: Steve McQueen
- Marian Goodman Gallery: Steve McQueen
- BBC profile
- Queen and Country
- Steve McQueen on re-title.com
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- 1969 births
- European Film Awards winners (people)
- Living people
- Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
- Alumni of Chelsea College of Art & Design
- Alumni of the University of the Arts
- English artists
- English sculptors
- English film directors
- Turner Prize winners
- Video artists
- Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
- Black British people
- People from Hanwell
