Harland Miller

Not Giving Into Willpower

€8,000

Limited edition of 2586.0 (H) × 59.3 (W) cm

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Marking 90 years of Penguin Books, Harland Miller unveils the final-ever edition release of his beloved Penguin paintings.

A new limited edition silkscreen print, Not Giving Into Willpower is part of the British artist’s iconic Penguin collection. First exhibited in 1996 at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, where he later became Writer in Residence, the series reimagines vintage book jackets as large-scale paintings with wry, often provocative titles. The series propelled Miller to art-world stardom and is now one of contemporary art’s most sought-after pieces.

For the last print release of this seminal series, Harland has chosen five of his most well-known titles and paired them with iconic Penguin cover colours. The collection is a result of close collaboration with the master printmakers at Make-Ready – a celebration of the art of both printmaking and painting brought to life in textured layers that faithfully-translate Harland’s cherished brushstroke. This piece launches in support of the artist’s upcoming Design Museum exhibition.

It’s been difficult to narrow it down to five, but I had the idea of five classic Penguin colours and - shoot me for saying it about my own work - but five of my titles that I've also referred to as classics – by which I mean the ones I know for sure people have loved. This won't have a sequel - well, not unless Penguin call me up when they're a hundred! And that's if I'm still around. But this side of that century, these are 'The Final Five'!
Harland Miller

Harland Miller on 'The Final Five'

The collection is the result of collaboration between Harland and Make-Ready, Avant Arte's specialist printmaking studio. Here, Harland talks to master printmaker Tom Murphy on the power of print, the origin of his iconic series and selecting five for silkscreen translation.

A closeup of Harland Miller's Penguin painting edition.

Harland Miller7 collaborationsA title is seductive by design. Harland Miller’s work with text turns this truth into art. He began working with text as part of a series of paintings based on the book jackets associated with the literary genre commonly known in the USA as 'pulp fiction' and in the UK as 'tin pan alley' or 'penny dreadfuls.' The original paintings were in fact fairly painstaking reproductions of the dust covers he'd collected in the UK but it was after moving to Paris that these early appropriations developed into more personal formations or 'takes' on the idea of painting books or, put another way, books as a subject for paintings.

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