Art e-Facts 40

In 2003 the Imperial War Museum commissioned the British artist Steve McQueen to produce an official portrait of the Iraq conflict.
The former Turner prize winner (1999) is perhaps best known for his gallery based black and white silent films (the most famous being the restaging of the Buster Keaton stunt of the falling house in Deadpan.(1997).
McQueen was never likely to produce a standard representational work and so it was when in February 2007 the final work was unveiled at Manchester Central Library in the run up to the Manchester International festival.
The work is a collection of 100 (approx) stamps showing personal photographs of British soldiers killed in the conflict. McQueen worked with the full support of the families of the soldiers. The work faced strong opposition from the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton has refused to allow the stamps to be a real commemorative issue.

For the background and full story:

www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART17087.html

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2308407.ece

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2308397.ece

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2031797,00.html