Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen

Artwork: Steve McQueen, Sunshine State, 2022 © Steve McQueen. Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery, Marian Goodman Gallery and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio

Over a short period of time, Steve MCQUEEN (1969, UK) became one of the most important British artists and filmmakers. His art has been acquired by major institutions, including the Guggenheim, Tate and Centre Pompidou. In 1999, McQueen won the Turner Prize for “the poetry and clarity of his vision, the range of his work, its emotional intensity and economy of means.” His first feature Hunger, on the 1981 hunger strike of IRA member Bobby Sands, won him the Caméra d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival as well as the Golden Hugo at Chicago International Film Festival. Shame (2011) premiered at Venice Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion. With 12 Years a Slave (2013), McQueen won the BAFTA and Golden Globe for Best Film. He also became the first black filmmaker to win the Oscar for Best Picture. In 2016, he was granted the British Film Institute Fellowship. Widows (2018), his fourth feature, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. In 2020, McQueen was knighted for his services to British film. His anthology series of five films, Small Axe (2020) – focusing on five stories set within London's West Indian community, from the late 1960s to the early '80s – received numerous accolades. Mangrove, Lovers Rock, and Red, White and Blue premiered at the New York Film Festival, while Mangrove and Lovers Rock were also screened at the BFI London Film Festival shortly after. The last film of the anthology, Education (2020), was based on a story from his own life. In 2021, McQueen made Uprising, together with director James Rogan, a 3-part documentary series meeting the survivors of the New Cross fire and looking at its shocking aftermath.

 

Portrait: Steve McQueen ©James Stopforth/Thomas Dane Gallery

Filmography

Exodus (1992, short), Bear (1993, short), Five Easy Pieces (1995, short), Just Above My Head (1996, short), Stage (1996, short), Deadpan (1997, short), Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1998, short), Drumroll (1998, instal), Cold Breath (1999, short), Prey (1999, short), Current (1999, instal), 7th Nov. (2001, short), Girls, Tricky (2001, short), Illuminer (2001, short), Once Upon a Time (2002), Western Deep (2002, short doc), Carib’s Leap (2002, short doc), Charlotte (2004, short), Pursuit (2005, instal), Gravesend (2007, short), Running Thunder (2007, short), Unexploded (2007, short), Hunger (2008), Rayner’s Lane (2008, short), Giardini (2009, instal), Static (2009, short), Shame (2011), End Credits (2012, instal), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Ashes (2014, short), Mr. Burberry (2016, short), Codes of Conduct (2016, TV series, episode: pilot), Blue de Chanel: The Film (2018, short), Widows (2018), Small Axe (2020, TV series, 5 episodes), Uprising (2021, doc, TV series, 3 episodes)

More info: Wikipedia, Steve McQueen