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Explore the presentation of Harland Miller's ‘The French Letter Paintings’ below, or contact us to schedule an in-person or virtual tour with a member of our Paris sales team.
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‘I had wondered if it would be possible for people to feel the same way – to have the same connection and feel that their own personal story was just as effectively portrayed by one word alone, one short word, very short… like YES!’
− Harland Miller: In the Shadows I Boogie, Phaidon, 2019
A paean to Harland Miller’s time spent in Paris as a young artist and writer during the 1990s, ‘The French Letter Paintings’ attest to his deep-rooted engagement with the narrative, aural and typographical possibilities of language.
Miller has said that ‘the subject of and for my work over the last twenty years has been writing in all its forms and associations – both in terms of writing itself and a love of words – and books, that actual physical form in which written narrative, ideas and theory most commonly appear.’ Following on from his well-known series of fictional book cover paintings, the ‘Letter’ paintings and works on paper began with the idea of using a single word, with just one or two syllables, as a book title and the focus for gestural abstraction.
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Harland MillerOui, 2021Oil on canvas189.3 x 129 cm | 74 1/2 x 50 13/16 in.
191.9 x 131.9 x 6.3 cm | 75 9/16 x51 15/16 x 2 1/2 in. (framed)
GBP 175,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerHz So Good, 2021Oil on canvas171.5 x 115 cm | 67 1/2 x 45 1/4 in.
174.2 x 117.6 x 6.5 cm | 68 9/16 x 46 5/16 x 2 9/16 in. (framed)
GBP 175,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerUp is a Nice Place to Be, 2021Oil on canvas183 x 121 cm | 72 1/16 x 47 5/8 in.
185.8 x 123.8 x 6.5 cm | 73 1/8 x 48 3/4 x 2 9/16 in. (framed)
GBP 175,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerAce, 2021Oil on canvas and wood183.5 x 128 cm | 72 1/4 x 50 3/8 in.
185.8 x 130.5 x 6.4 cm | 73 1/8 x 51 3/8 x 2 1/2 in. (framed)
GBP 175,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
With a nod to Charles Dickens, Miller wryly refers to his sojourn in Paris as ‘the best of times and the worst of times’: an emotional and artistic coming of age. Continuing this dichotomy, ‘The French Letter Paintings’ marry a sense of intimacy with the universal, and the poetic with the punch-line. Synthesising multiple references drawn from both high and low culture, including the decorative first letters in illuminated medieval manuscripts and the super-sized iconography of Pop, Miller employs a myriad of typefaces – some everyday, some obscure – to effect a process of isolating and overlaying, simultaneously constructing and abstracting the meaning of language.
In the painting Hz So Good (2021), for example, Miller makes reference to Heinrich Rudolph Hertz, after whom the unit for measuring frequency is named, at the same time as introducing a play on words - alluding to the common lyric ‘hurts so good’.
In the triptych Amour, Amour, More Amour (2021), he creates both a visual and aural rhythm in the work and points to a disjunction between diction and delivery. Miller uses the multi-panel format as a way to give each word its own physical delivery, at the same time as suggesting a narrative and emotional continuity from one canvas to the next: ‘I liked the eternal sense of renewal and also the concord of two languages I’d used separately in one.’
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Harland MillerAmour, Amour, More Amour, 2021Oil on canvasTriptych, each: 150 x 100 cm | 59 1/16 x 39 3/8 in.
154.4 x 103.4 x 6.7 cm | 60 13/16 x 40 11/16 x 2 5/8 in. (framed)
GBP 250,000 plus applicable -
Harland Milleroui, 2021Oil on canvas138 x 91 cm | 54 5/16 x 35 13/16 in.
140.4 x 94.4 x 6.7 cm | 55 1/4 x 37 3/16 x 2 5/8 in. (framed)
GBP 150,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Miller selects mono- or bisyllabic words such as Ace, Buzz, Boss, Up, Can that accrue multiple meanings through popular use. Rendered in a variety of styles, from the graphic and precise to the painterly and expressive, the paintings reference American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s and artists including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Ed Ruscha.
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Harland MillerKiss, 2021Oil on canvas120 x 100.5 cm | 47 1/4 x 39 9/16 in.
124 x 103 x 6.5 cm | 48 13/16 x 40 9/16 x 2 9/16 in. (framed)
GBP 150,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerOui, 2021Oil, watercolour and pencil on paper152 x 115 cm | 59 13/16 x 45 1/4 in.
163.3 x 127.5 x 6 cm | 64 5/16 x 50 3/16 x 2 3/8 in. (framed)
GBP 80,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerLuv, 2021Oil, watercolour and pencil on paper
51 x 36 cm | 20 1/16 x 14 3/16 in.
58.7 x 43.6 x 4.3 cm | 23 1/8 x 17 3/16 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)
GBP 30,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
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Harland MillerMe, 2021Oil, watercolour and pencil on paper51 x 36 cm | 20 1/16 x 14 3/16 in.
58.7 x 43.6 x 4.3 cm | 23 1/8 x 17 3/16 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)
GBP 30,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerSo, 2021Oil, watercolour and pencil on paper51 x 36 cm | 20 1/16 x 14 3/16 in.
58.7 x 43.6 x 4.3 cm | 23 1/8 x 17 3/16 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)GBP 30,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerBuzz, 2021Oil, watercolour and pencil on paper51 x 36 cm | 20 1/16 x 14 3/16 in.
58.7 x 43.6 x 4.3 cm | 23 1/8 x 17 3/16 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)
GBP 30,000 plus applicable taxesView more details
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Harland MillerCan , 2021Oil, watercolour and pencil on paper51 x 36 cm | 20 1/16 x 14 3/16 in.
58.7 x 43.6 x 4.3 cm | 23 1/8 x 17 3/16 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)
GBP 30,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerGold, 2021Oil, watercolour and pencil on paper51 x 36 cm | 20 1/16 x 14 3/16 in.
58.7 x 43.6 x 4.3 cm | 23 1/8 x 17 3/16 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)GBP 30,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerBoss, 2021Oil, watercolour and pencil on paper51 x 36 cm | 20 1/16 x 14 3/16 in.
58.7 x 43.6 x 4.3 cm | 23 1/8 x 17 3/16 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)
GBP 30,000 plus applicable taxesView more details
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Harland MillerKiss, 2021Oil and pencil on graph paper
30.5 x 22.9 cm | 12 x 9 in.
51.7 x 43.5 x 4.3 cm | 20 3/8 x 17 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)GBP 15,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerBoss, 2021Oil and pencil on graph paper30.5 x 22.9 cm | 12 x 9 in.
51.7 x 43.5 x 4.3 cm | 20 3/8 x 17 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)
GBP 15,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerO.D, 2021Oil and pencil on graph paper30.5 x 22.9 cm | 12 x 9 in.
51.7 x 43.5 x 4.3 cm | 20 3/8 x 17 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)GBP 15,000 plus applicable taxesView more details
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Harland MillerNude, 2021Oil and pencil on graph paper30.5 x 22.9 cm | 12 x 9 in.
51.7 x 43.5 x 4.3 cm | 20 3/8 x 17 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)
GBP 15,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerHz, 2021Oil and pencil on graph paper30.5 x 22.9 cm | 12 x 9 in.
51.7 x 43.5 x 4.3 cm | 20 3/8 x 17 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)
GBP 15,000 plus applicable taxesView more details -
Harland MillerJizz, 2021Oil and pencil on graph paper30.5 x 22.9 cm | 12 x 9 in.
51.7 x 43.5 x 4.3 cm | 20 3/8 x 17 1/8 x 1 11/16 in. (framed)
GBP 15,000 plus applicable taxesView more details
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To enquire about any of the works in this exhibition or to arrange a viewing
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Harland Miller
Harland Miller was born in Yorkshire, UK in 1964 and lives and works in London. Solo exhibitions include York Art Gallery, UK (2020); Palacio Quintanar, Segovia (2015) and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2009). Group exhibitions include Somerset House, London (2016); ‘Sculpture in the Close’, Jesus College, Cambridge, UK (2013); ‘Summer Exhibition’, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2005, 2006, 2007); Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany (2004); and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1996). In 2008, Miller curated the group show ‘You Dig The Tunnel, I’ll Hide The Soil’ at White Cube and Shoreditch Town Hall, London.
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© Harland Miller. Photo © White Cube (Ollie Hammick)