Jeremy Deller Warning Graphic Content
by Matthew Higgs
Perhaps the most salient thing you need to know about the artist Jeremy Deller is that he neither trained nor studied to be an artist. This is important, as it inducts Deller within a history of so-called “self-taught” artists: a canon of individuals who arrived at making art, or something that resembles art, via other means, via other routes. Eschewing art school, Deller instead studied art history, initially within the formal environs of London’s Courtauld Institute, where he specialized in the southern-European Baroque; and then later at the University of Sussex, where he studied with David Mellor (Mellor’s Wikipedia entry notably identifies only Deller as being a former student of his). At Sussex, Deller’s interests expanded to embrace a broader and more porous understanding of the role that both art and the artist might play within society. Informed and influenced by the prescient thinking of the pioneers of what came to be known as Cultural Studies — Raymond Williams, Richard Hoggart, Stuart Hall, et al — Deller’s subsequent work, over the next three decades both mirrors and amplifies their desire to understand culture “in all its complex forms”, whilst simultaneously analyzing “the social and political context in which culture manifests itself.”

¹ Rugoff, R. 'Middle Class Hero', in Hall, Stuart; Higgs, Matthew; Rugoff, Ralph; Young, Rob (ed.) ‘Jeremy Deller: Joy in People’, (London: Hayward Gallery Publishing, 2012), p. 20.

Poster printed on matt finish paper
148 x 99 cm, 58 1/4 x 39 in

Silkscreen on glitter paper
69.5 x 50.5 cm 27 3/8 x 19 7/8 in unframed; 70 x 51 cm, 27 1/2 x 20 1/8 in framed, Edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof

Hand water-coloured screenprint
56 x 76 cm, 22 1/8 x 29 7/8 in unframed; 56.5 x 76.5 cm, 22 1/4 x 30 1/8 in framed, Edition of 100

Silk screen print
56.5 x 76.5 cm, 22 1/4 x 30 1/8 in framed, Edition of 75 plus 5 artist's proofs

Silkscreen print on paper
Dimension variable, Edition of 10 plus 4 artist's proofs

Screen print on paper
31.7 x 48.3 cm, 12 1/2 x 19 1/8 cm unframed; 32.5 x 48.5 cm, 12 3/4 x 19 1/8 in framed, Edition of 6

Cards mounted on conservation board
37.7 x 43.5 cm, Edition of 100 plus 20 artist's proofs

Silkscreen print on paper
57.2 x 72.4 cm framed, Edition of 10 plus 4 artist's proofs

Silkscreen print on paper
3 parts, each 62.9 x 99.1 cm framed, Edition of 10 plus 4 artist's proofs

Silkscreen print on paper
43.5 x 53.7 cm framed, Edition of 100 plus 10 artist's proofs

Silkscreen on paper
79 x 54 cm unframed; 84 x 58 x 4 cm framed, Edition of 4 plus 5 artist's proofs

Silkscreen print on paper
101.6 x 71.8 cm framed, Edition of 10 plus 4 artist's proof

Artist's poster printed on 115 gsm blue-backed matt finish paper
76.5 x 51 cm, 30 1/8 x 20 1/8 in, Edition of 300

Silkscreen on paper
68 x 42 x 4 cm framed, Edition of 3 plus 2 artist's proofs

Silkscreen on paper
78 x 54 cm unframed, 83.5 x 58.5 x 4 cm framed, Edition of 5 plus 3 artist's proofs

Offset print
59 x 84 cm, 23.2 x 33.1 in, Edition of 3 plus 2 artist's proofs
With thanks to BUILDHOLLYWOOD for their support on a series of street posters produced to coincide with the exhibition.