Harland Miller

Happiness: The Case Against (XL)

2017

Harland Miller is a British artist and novelist, born in 1964, in Yorkshire, England. He is best known for his satirical paintings of re-imagined Penguin classics, often with his invented sardonic titles. He takes artistic influence from Ed Ruscha, Anselm Kiefer and Robert Rauschenberg and cites Mark Rothko as one of his favorite artists. He attended the Chelsea College of Art, in London, from where he received his BA and MA degrees, after which he traveled extensively, living in New York, New Orleans, Paris and Berlin. Miller first achieved critical acclaim with his writing. His debut novel, Slow down Arthur, Stick to Thirty (2000), featured a kid who travels around northern England, with a David Bowie impersonator. In the same year, Miller published the novella, First I was Afraid, I was Petrified, based on the true story of a female relative with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. In 2001, Miller produced the first of a series of paintings, based on the dust jackets of old Penguin books. He was struck by the visceral nostalgia that the book covers, rather than their contents, evoked.