Combining image and text
b. 1964
Harland Miller
Writer and painter Harland Miller is best known for his recreations of Penguin book jackets and for his mischievous, often dark, sense of humour. Characterised by an undercurrents of satire and self-depreciation, Miller’s art explores the relationship between word and image to comment on the frequent disconnect between representation and reality.
Miller was born on 11 March 1964 in North Yorkshire. His father bought and collected books, hoping to find a rare first edition among old car manuals and magazines ('he never did,' said Miller). But books would become a recurring theme in Miller’s life: 'I suppose I experienced at that young age high culture and low culture together before I could make any difference between them,' the artist later said. Famed for his prints and paintings, Miller began his career as a writer, publishing two novels in 2000. Now, his fictional Penguin covers give him the 'pleasure to imagine a book I had already written and then painting it'.
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About the Artist
Writer and painter Harland Miller is best known for his recreations of Penguin book jackets and for his mischievous, often dark, sense of humour. Characterised by an undercurrents of satire and self-depreciation, Miller’s art explores the relationship between word and image to comment on the frequent disconnect between representation and reality.
Miller was born on 11 March 1964 in North Yorkshire. His father bought and collected books, hoping to find a rare first edition among old car manuals and magazines ('he never did,' said Miller). But books would become a recurring theme in Miller’s life: 'I suppose I experienced at that young age high culture and low culture together before I could make any difference between them,' the artist later said. Famed for his prints and paintings, Miller began his career as a writer, publishing two novels in 2000. Now, his fictional Penguin covers give him the 'pleasure to imagine a book I had already written and then painting it'.
Influence
Miller has said that inspiration for his work can come from anywhere: the outdoors, the bus stop, a misheard conversation or the personal advert sections of newspapers – which informed Incurable Romantic Seeks Dirty Filthy Whore.
Visually, Miller cites Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg and Mark Rothko as influences. His more recent letter paintings were inspired by a writing style found in medieval manuscripts, the artist himself claiming, 'I brought a Pop Art sensibility to medieval manuscripts'.
Miller is himself an obvious influence on the work of The Connor Brothers & James McQueen, whose appropriation of vintage book covers laden with witty or sardonic titles directly replicate Miller's work.
Miller's parodies of classic Penguin book covers like Fuck Art Let's Dance, combine Pop Art motifs with the brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionism to create a new work that is simultaneously humorous and nostalgic, on a monumental scale. The inspiration for the series came as the artist found a box of old Penguin books in a second-hand bookshop in Paris. It was an 'eureka moment'. Now, the instantly recognisable covers are a vehicle for Miller’s satirical messages and witty puns.
Prints and Multiples
Harland Miller has made prints in a variety of mediums – including silkscreen, etching, embossing, giclee print and inkjet, often with chine colle or collage. They can be as small as roughly A4, to 3-4 times that size. They are generally produced on paper with a thin glossy finish, such as Somerset Satin.
Generally, Miller’s prints are published as single sheet editions, but some are published as pairs: Fuck Art Let’s Dance/Fuck Dancing Let’s Fuck was produced a diptych, while In Shadows I Boogie was published in two colourways – blue and pink – and sold in presentation boxes with monographs of the same title, bearing the corresponding print on the book cover.
In the early 2010s, Miller created a series of paintings and prints based on old Penguin poetry editions with their marbled covers. The displayed artwork titles in the Poets series often contain references to love: titles include Love and Other Crimes and the uncharacteristically optimistic Loves Saves the Day.
Current Market
On the secondary market, the value of Miller’s artworks continues to rise, with the record sale price for an individual print set at £94,900 by This Is Where Its Fuckin At in 2021. Editions of Miller’s silkscreen print Who Cares Wins, which were originally sold for £5,000 by White Cube gallery in 2020 to fundraise for the Covid-19 crisis, later achieved over £17,000 at auction in July 2021.
The value of Miller’s prints can be affected by several factors. Demand and edition size can influence value. Current shows exhibiting similar artworks can also sway buying trends, as well as condition and provenance.
Special hand-finished prints command higher prices than standard ones: a unique version of This Is Where Its Fuckin At, reworked by Miller with acrylic and watercolour, fetched over £94,900 (with fees) in 2021, the highest value for any of Miller’s prints sold on the secondary market.
Over the past year, each of Harland Miller's prints fetched an average price of €26,205, demonstrating a strong and increasing demand for his artwork.
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