Steve McQueen

Description

Made in close collaboration with the artist, this paperback publication has been created to accompany the first major exhibition of Steve McQueen’s artwork in the UK for 20 years, held at Tate Modern from February 2020. It focuses on McQueen’s powerful body of work from the past two decades, bringing together the immersive video and film installations he has made since 2000. These include large-scale video installations such as Caribs’ Leap / Western Deep, 2002, as well as more recent films such as Ashes, 2002–15 and new works such as Year 3, held at Tate Britain from 12 November 2019 to 3 May 2020.

This lavishly illustrated book includes an interview between the artist and renowned curator Hamza Walker, exploring key aspects of the McQueen’s career. An essay by Solveig Nelson focuses more deeply and directly on McQueen’s artworks in relation to film, black cinema, and queer cinema, and Paul Gilroy discusses McQueen’s work in relation to the socio-political context of black British issues and within the black diaspora.

Celebrated for his powerful and uncompromising position, Steve McQueen is one of the most important artists and film-makers working today. His works are poignant and provocative portraits of time and place, which turn his unflinching eye to urgent contemporary issues. Over the last 25 years he has been hugely influential in expanding the way in which artists work with film and has authored some of the most seminal works of moving image designed for gallery-based presentation. He has also made four major films for cinematic release, including the Academy Award winning 12 Years a Slave, 2013.