Steve McQueen

A career-spanning introduction to the award-winning director of Small Axe, with contributions from Paul Gilroy, Hamza Walker and more

Declared by Time one of the most influential people in the world in 2014, British filmmaker Steve McQueen first presented his work in galleries and museums in the early 1990s, with installations and films influenced by Warhol and French New Wave. (An early friendship with Okwui Enwezor was also formative.) His first major work was Bear (1993), in which two naked men (one of them McQueen) exchange glances that can be interpreted as either flirtatious or threatening. Today McQueen is best known for award-winning films such as Widows (2018), Twelve Years a Slave (2013), Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). More recently, he directed the five-part film series Small Axe (2020), about London's Black community and the British Caribbean experience. In 2021, a three-part documentary series, Uprising, Black Power: A British Story of Resistance and Subnormal: A British Scandal (2021) were released as a companion to Small Axe, covering the Civil Rights Movement in the UK.

Published for McQueen's solo exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca, this comprehensive survey features several of the artist's most iconic films from the past two decades, as well as an in-depth exploration of his new work. It includes critical texts on McQueen's oeuvre by art historians and curators, among them Paul Gilroy and Solveig Nelson, as well as a conversation between the artist and Hamza Walker.

Steve McQueen, in full Steven Rodney McQueen, was born October 9, 1969 near London, England. McQueen is a British director, screenwriter, and artist.

McQueen was born to a Grenadan father and a Trinidadian mother, both of whom had immigrated to England. He studied art in London at the Chelsea College of Art and Design (1989–90) and at Goldsmiths College (1990–93; now Goldsmiths, University of London), where he developed an enthusiasm for film.

McQueen, who received many awards for his commercial films at various film festivals throughout the world, was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2002 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2011.

• Publisher: ‎Marsilio (August 30, 2022)
• Language: ‎English
• Paperback: ‎288 pages
• ISBN-13: ‎9791254630082
• Item Weight: ‎2.5 pounds