I think many love the imagery and the sense of humor but I thought the following video was enlightening about how the works have more meaning to the artist and his collectors.

For me its the texture which is much more appealing in person. Some of my favourite works in my collection are Millers, I can stare at the drips and smears all day. His geometrical work (Armageddon, Happiness) doesn't do it for me and some of the common titles are hit or miss for me as well. But the right work in the right space is a show stopper.

I'd recommend a trip to the seaside towns down the East Coast of Yorkshire or grab yourself some Penguin books, which is a "coming of age" brand for many. For an American, I guess It's a little like reliving an experience of taking the subway to the end of the line at Coney Island on a wet Monday morning, getting an overpriced hot dog from a Bukowski like character, then sitting down to read "Catcher in the Rye" on a wet bench by a deserted rollercoaster as you look out through the mist rolling in from the sea and having a wry smile at it alll. For me, they're soaked in this pathos.

ha, spoken like a gal who's holiday'd in a caravan, why not both, either way, I'll take it. 

As close as most of them have ever been to a book. plus 3 words.

Lets face it his prices have and are rising. They are told that and buy. Plenty of other artists doing the same thing cheaper and as well if you are only interested in the look. Take away the potential financial gain and you wouldn't own a fraction of what you do and this forum would have 2 visits a day.
same thing with yeezy's, supreme etc.

Cheers for the 2 cents all. Still not 100% sold, but hearing thoughts and watching the above video 'I get it' a bit more now...

Passed in today's auction. Go Harland Miller.


www.phillips.com/detail/harland-miller/UK010722/146

It probably didn't help that this piece had already been on the block at Christie's last July and hammered at £130k.

If you have an estimate of 200-300k it needs to be hammering at 500k to hit the true number they want or Expect.

Harland is a 200k artist so the estimate killed the works chances in this instance.

80-100k would have garnered interest and bidding,

Harland is a good artist, I’m a fan for sure. he’s not a great artist though.

Prints flip, originals are a much harder proposition.

That said I’d have this who cares canvas on my wall and enjoy it for sure..

As well as the obvious influences Miller does draw a lot an art history, you can see in his compositions little head nods to previous artistic movements, there's pop art, abstract expressionist, and conceptual influences. Kind of like putting Andy Warhol, Rothko, Twombly, Mel Bochner, and Damien Hirst in a blender with the added ingredients of his appreciation of literature and experience as a writer. All of this is presented in a very accessible way for people and clearly has commercial appeal whilst having an esoteric layer. This means that it will not only appeal to people with an art history background but also new collectors. Personally I'm a big fan of his; if you're looking at buying his work for financial reasons my only advice would be to be selective and patient. Certain works will do very well, but others will always struggle. Some of the secondary prices being asked are stupid, try wherever possible to buy primary at a sensible price or if you buy secondary try and buy directly from a collector so you don't have to pay gallery prices or big auction fees. Fortunately his works come up on here at least once every few months at sensible prices so UAA is a good resource for Miller.

The canvas at Philips today had a stupid reserve, it only sold in July 21 and was way too early to be back under the hammer especially in light of the current economic problems. Assuming it was the first time on the block this should have been estimated at £100-120k and it probably would have hammered for around or above the high estimate. These size canvas do sell for between £200-250k all in but this is not the strongest in my view and is probably worth £150-180k total cost to a collector.

I think he’s struggled to find a style away from the penguins that is as successful. His auction results have never set the world alight yet White Cube try and price his originals more on primary than on secondary which is a recipe for disaster. He does have good hair though.

Very little being said on his new works at the White Cube show.
There’s a couple a quite like but some are very poor. Some even look like GCSE standard and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration.

Go see them in person......he has been very busy!

Tuesday night was lovely!




words words words