| AdminHistory | Jamie Macgregor Reid was an internationally renowned artist born in Croydon on 16 January 1947, where he grew up with a politically engaged family. His father wrote critically on city trading for Fleet Street, his older brother was a member of the militant wing of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and his great uncle agitated amongst the dockers in New York before holding mass rallies on Clapham Common. Having attended Croydon Art College with fellow agitator Malcolm McLaren, both were involved in organising actions during the protests of 1968, inspired by the events at the Sorbonne, Paris.
In 1970, Reid co-founded a local agit-prop, Situationist-aligned radical print collective called Surburban Press in Croydon, where many of his instantly recognisable visual tropes were developed - DIY lettering, tabloid texts and a humorous use of appropriated visuals, often plagiarised from the styles of advertising campaigns. These included campaigns against council corruption, rampant venal property development, capitalist exploitation and wilful trade union wreckage. He gained international notoriety for deploying these methods in his work with McLaren and the Sex Pistols, including artwork such as his iconic 'God Save the Queen' cover image.
Following the disbandment of the Sex Pistols, Reid turned his attention to direct action - No Clause 28, No Criminal Justice Bill, No Poll Tax, often directing his ire at the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Latterly, civil liberties groups that actively utilised Reid’s support include the Occupy and Free Pussy Riot movements. Once living in Paris, Reid fell in with the Algerian community and developed a more lyrical use of image and text in a cycle of work which came to be known as Leaving The 20th Century or How To Become Invisible. Reid began prominently exhibiting his work with Hamilton’s Gallery London in 1986. In 1987, Faber and Faber published the monograph Up They Rise: The Incomplete Works of Jamie Reid. Towards the end of the 1980s, Reid became involved with Malcolm Garrett’s Assorted iMaGes design company in East London, and produced visuals for a multitude of bands and performers, as well as involving himself with civil rights movements. Reid also developed recording studio spaces for Strongroom Studios, who were also located in the same Victorian factory building as his studio. This work continued for around ten years, producing an extensive and immersive environment based on colour theory and symbolism.
After moving to Liverpool in the early 1990s, Reid exhibited his artworks internationally, often utilising strategies of totality rather than exhibiting solely current or singular areas of work. Although Reid worked primarily in painting since the late 1990s, he continued to produce graphic work on paper to support specific causes until his death on 8 August 2023 aged 76. An exhibition was held in his memory at LJMU in 2024, entitled 'INTO THE LIGHT: Jamie Reid: A Memorial Exhibition.' It utilised artworks from this collection, alongside material from private collections and the estate of Jamie Reid. |
| CustodialHistory | This collection was purchased by LJMU Special Collections & Archives in 2018 from Jamie Reed. |