Steve McQueen
Further images
student at Goldsmiths College of the
University of London. He has described
it as one of the cornerstones of his career
to date. Bear was the artist’s first film to
be exhibited publicly and the first to be
shown in the side-to-side, floor-to-ceiling
format that has characterized much of
his work, directly confronting the viewer
with the action.
Like most of McQueen’s early films,
it is silent, filmed in black-and-white,
and lacks a straightforward narrative.
Two naked men, one of them McQueen,
square off in an apparent fight. But what
is traditionally an aggressive act quickly
becomes subverted by the sexually
charged possibilities of their encounter.
Each man sizes the other up and stares
the other down. They exchange taunts as
well as suggestive leers. One moment they
lock in an embrace; the next they struggle
aggressively. A viewer might well wonder
whether this is a fighting match, a mating
dance, or both. The film seems to suggest
that violence has an erotic dimension, or
conversely that eros has its violent aspect.
The camera circles the action, providing
rotating points of view, but without
a clear resolution. Bear is a study in
contrasts. Film speeds, for example, are
manipulated: sped up to intensify action
or slowed to create dreamlike passages.
Extreme camera angles and sharp contrasts
in lighting heighten the drama.
Ultimately, Bear is a beautiful, deliberately
ambiguous construct.
Provenance
The artistExhibitions
Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender and Identity, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England, 28 July - 5 November 2017; [travelled to: Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 2 December 2017 - 15 April 2018]
Flesh. Skin and Surface, York Art Gallery, York, England, 23 September 2016 - 19 March 2017
Encounters and Collisions, curated by Glenn Ligon, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England, 3 April – 14 June 2015; [travelled to: Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, England, 30 June – 18 October 2015]
Steve McQueen: Works, Schaulager Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 1 March – 7 July 2013
Steve McQueen: Works, The Art Institute of Chicago, Regenstein Hall, Chicago IL, 21 October 2012 – 6 January 2013
Intimacy, Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia, 7 October – 30 November 2008
The Cinema Effect. Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image, Part I: Dreams, Hirshhorn
Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, 14 February – 11 May 2008
How to Improve the World. 60 Years of British Art. Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London, England, 7 September – 19 November 2006
Steve McQueen. Caribs’ Leap/Western Deep, Museo de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal, 25 January - 13 April 2003; [travelled to: Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain, 5 December 2003 - 16 February 2004]
Real Life: Film and Video Art, Tate St Ives, St Ives, Cornwall, England, 26 October 2002 – 26 January 2003
Steve McQueen, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria, 9 May – 19 August 2001
Public Offerings, MOCA Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA, 1 April -29 July 2001
Steve McQueen, Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela, 17 September – 26 October 2000; [travelled to: Institute for Contemporary Art, Cape Town, South Africa, 16 November – 17 December 2000; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, 26 April – 17 June 2001; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico, 21 June – 19 August 2001]
Moments in Time. On Narration and Slowness, Städtische Galerie in Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München, Munich, 28 April – 13 June 1999
Steve
McQueen, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland, 12
June – 15 August 1999
Steve McQueen, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England, 30 January - 21
March 1999
Steve McQueen. Four Projected Images, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco CA, 27 February – 12 May 1998
Trade Routes. History and Geography, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, Johannesburg, South Africa, 12 October – 12 December 1997
Steve McQueen, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York NY, 22 May – 28 June 1997
Steve McQueen, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, 12 April – 8 June 1997
Timing, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands, February – March 1996
The British Art Show 4, Manchester, England, 12 November 1995 – 4 February 1996; [travelled to: Edinburgh, Scotland, 24 February – 28 April 1996; Cardiff, Wales; 18 May – 21 July 1996]
Mirage. Enigmas of Race, Difference and Desire, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Institute of International Visual Arts, London, England, 12 May – 16 July 1995
Acting Out. The Body in Video: Then and Now, Henry Moore Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, England, 22 February – 13 March 1994
Collections
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Arts Council Collection, England
Tate Collection, England
Literature
Coming out: Sexuality, Gender & Identity, Liverpool: National Museums Liverpool, 2017 pp. 46-47 ill.
Flesh, York: York Art Gallery, 2016
pp. 50-51 ill.
Farquharson, Alex, Francesco Manacorda and Andrea Nixon., Glenn Ligon: Encounters and Collisions, Nottingham: Nottingham
Contemporary; London: Tate
Publishing, 2015 pp. 106-107 ill.
Steve McQueen, Tokyo: Espace Louis
Vuitton, 2014 (cover)
I want the screen to be a massive mirror,
Basel: Schaulager Basel, Steudler Press, 2013 p. 26 (cover) ill.
Steve McQueen: Works, Chicago: Art
Institute of Chicago; Basel: Schaulager Basel; Berlin: Kehrer, 2012 pp. 23,
66-67
The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving
Image, Washington D.C: Washington Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden, 2008
History in the Making. A Retrospective of the Turner Prize, Tokyo: Mori Art Museum, 2008 pp. 102
Cork, Richard., Breaking
Down the Barriers: art in the 1990s, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003
pp. 110 ill.
Real Life: Film and video art, London: Tate Publishing, 2002
Kystof,
Doris, ed., Steve McQueen, texts by Gerald Matt, Doris Kystof,
Thomas Miessgang and Ilka Becker, Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien, 2001 p. 14 ill.
Public Offerings, Los Angeles: Museum
of Contemporary Art, 2001 pp. 86-89, 182
Blazwick, Iwona, ed., Tate
modern: The handbook, London: Tate Publishing, 2000 p. 196 ill.
Steve McQueen, Caracas: Sala Mendoza; Cape Town: Institute for Contemporary Art; São Paulo: Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, 2000 (n.p)
Moments in Time. On Narration and Slowness, Munich: Städtische Galerie in Lenbachaus und Kunstbau München, 1999
Van Noord, Gerrie,
ed., Steve McQueen, texts
by Robert Storr, Michael Newman and Okwui Enwezor, London: ICA; Zurich:
Kunsthalle Zürich, 1999 p. 13 ill.
Thompson, Jon, ed., Steve McQueen, Frankfurt
am Main: Portikus; Eindhoven: Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, 1997
Buck, Louisa., Moving Targets: A User’s
Guide to British Art Now, London: Tate Gallery Publishing, 1996 pp. 81-83
ill.
Spellbound: Art and Film, text by Martha Gever, London: British Film
Institute; Hayward Gallery, 1996 p. 94 ill.
The British Art Show 4, texts by Richard
Cor, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Thomas Lawson, London: South Bank Centre, 1995
Mirage. Enigmas of Race, Difference and Desire, London: Institute of Contemporary Arts,
1995
Acting Out: The
Body in Video: Then and Now, London: Royal College
of Art, 1994 p. 38 ill.