James McQueen

McQueen’s visual style has grown organically, inspired by his affection for the Penguin Book cover, a much-beloved symbol of British identity.

For McQueen, Penguin Books represent the democratisation of the written word; founded in 1935, the company's mission was to produce books at a low cost, enabling them to be widely accessible to all income levels - making them an object of familiarity and sentimentality for many.

Experimental, complex and varied, McQueen's paintings break new ground in the range of possibilities that can be acheived using the Penguin cover motif and design language. 

In all of his paintings, McQueen includes a spray-painted monkey wearing a hat in place of the Penguin icon. He describes this playful character as a ‘personal insignia’:

‘I wanted a character that I could identify with, something mischievous with a sense of humour that can push boundaries.’

McQueen’s ‘character’ is an evolution of a motif that was originally made famous by the graffiti artist Banksy. By representing this monkey wearing a hat, McQueen makes this motif his own. This playful approach to the recontextualization of existing artistic concepts and iconography runs throughout his visually striking canvases.

In many of his paintings, his personal insignia is holding the hand of another monkey. The artist explains that he wanted his insignia to ‘have a partner in crime, much like me and my wife.’

In taking inspiration from a commercial product and elevating a work of graphic design to the level of  ‘fine art’, McQueen continues the legacy of Pop art. Andy Warhol, the most celebrated Pop artist in history, famously pioneered this approach by transforming the Campbell’s Soup can, a product widely stocked in supermarkets and consumed across America, into rare and exciting works of fine art.

Through the appropriation of  commercial designs that are so deeply rooted in western culture, both the paintings of Warhol and McQueen exist as complex cultural symbols that reflect the social and economic circumstances of a nation at a particular time.

McQueen is intrigued by the life of a second-hand book. Unlike Warhol’s pristine soup cans, he incorporates the aesthetic of ‘wear and tear’, seeking to recreate the character and personality of a book that has been passed down through numerous owners and generations.

McQueen explains: 'A book that has been passed down has had a life … Everyone who owns it has put their little stamp on it, like a tea mark, pencil scribbles, or folded page corners.'

Second-hand books bear both the story written across their pages as well as the story of the owners who have passed them on. Inspired by details observed across his vast personal collection of second-hand books, McQueen emphasises this quality in each of his paintings.

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