Art Auction - Arms Around the Child

From the original 1997 Artificial NYC edition, this print of God Save The Queen is a black or gold on white version. Jamie Reid made several versions of this artwork - this one was used for flyers and promotional items and in many ways is the most infamous of them all. The single was released on 27th May 1977 - at the height of the queen’s Silver Jubilee - and has never ceased to shock. 

Jamie Reid's longstanding practice as an artist sits firmly within a tradition of English radical dissent that would include, for example, William Blake, Wat Tyler and Gerrard Winstanley. Like them, the work of dissent must offer, out of necessity, other social and spiritual models and Reid's practice is no exception.

Although Reid is known primarily for the deployment of Situationist strategies in his iconic work for the Sex Pistols and Suburban Press, the manifold strands of his art both continue that work whilst showing us other ways in which we can mobilise our energy and spirituality. It is this dialectic between Gnosticism and dissent that lies at the heart of Reid's practice and makes him one of the great English iconoclastic artists.