One of a trilogy of seminal early films by this talented filmmaker, Five Easy Pieces outlines the themes and artistic strategies that have guided McQueen’s work since he emerged in the mid-1990s. Marked by spatial, temporal, and narrative disjointedness and ambiguity, the work’s movements cohere into an orchestrated meditation on film itself. Its five "pieces" are united as experiments in cinematic form—the rhythmic exercises of the bodies throughout it are mirrored by the focus of the camera through formal experiments that resemble those of early modernist photographers such as Aleksandr Rodchenko and László Moholy-Nagy. Because it implicitly connects the history of photographic representation to both race and sexuality—foregrounded, for example, by the camera’s fixation on the dancer’s swinging buttocks and breasts—Five Easy Pieces also heralds the prominence of social issues in McQueen’s oeuvre to date.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Five Easy Pieces
Artist:Steve McQueen (British, born London, 1969)
Date:1995
Medium:Single-channel digital video, transferred from 16mm film, black-and-white, silent, 7 min., 4 sec.
Edition:2/3
Dimensions:108 x 144 in. (274.3 x 365.8 cm)
Classification:Variable Media
Credit Line:Jointly owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, purchased with the Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2016 and the Art Gallery of Ontario, purchased with the assistance of Peter Ross and the David Yuile and Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, 2016
[Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris, until 2016; sold to MMA and the Art Gallery of Ontario]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "The Body Politic: Video from The Met Collection," June 20–September 3, 2017, no catalogue.
Christian Haye. "Just an Illusion." Frieze (September 8, 1995).
Christian Haye. "Steve McQueen: Motion Pictures." Frieze (May 9, 1996).
Dominic Molon inSteve McQueen. Exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Chicago, 1996, unpaginated.
Martha Gever. Spellbound. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery. London, 1996, pp. 93–99, ill.
Patricia Bickers. "Let's Get Physical: Interview with Steve McQueen
." Art Monthly (December 1996–January 1997), pp. 1–5.
Jon Thompson inSteve McQueen. Exh. cat., Portikus Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt, 1997, pp. 5–9, ill.
Roberta Smith. "Art in Review." New York Times (June 6, 1997), p. C22.
Michael Rush. "Mighty Silence." Performing Arts Journal 19 (September 1997), pp. 61–63, ill., incorrectly labels illustration as "Bear" (1993).
Barbara London. Projects 62: Steve McQueen. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1997, unpaginated, ill.
Okwui Enwezor inSteve McQueen. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Zürich. London, 1997, pp. 37–50, ill.
David Frankel. "Steve McQueen. (Museum of Modern Art, New York)." Artforum International 36 (November 1, 1997), pp. 102–3.
Robert Storr inSteve McQueen. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Zürich. London, 1997, p. 9.
Michael Newman inSteve McQueen. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Zürich. London, 1997.
Mark Durden. "Viewing Positions: Steve McQueen." Parachute (April–June 2000), pp. 18–25.
Ilka Becker inSteve McQueen. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Wien. Vienna, 2001, pp. 47–58, ill.
Benjamin H.D. Buchloh. 30/40: A Selection of Forty Artists from Thirty Years at Marian Goodman Gallery. Exh. cat., Marian Goodman Gallery. New York, 2007.
Elisabeth Lebovici. "Steve McQueen: un cinéma qui dure et endure." Artpress no. 357 (June 2009), p. 54.
Jon Thompson. The Collected Writings of Jon Thompson. Ed. Jeremy Akerman and Eileen Daly. London, 2011, pp. 225–31.
Alice Bucknell. "McQueen's Art Reigns over Space, Time, and the Human Body." Chicago Maroon (October 23, 2012), p. 7.
Okwui Enwezor inSteve McQueen: Works. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Basel, 2012, pp. 28, 34, ill.
Georges Didi-Huberman inSteve McQueen: Works. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Basel, 2012, p. 38, ill.
Adrian Searle inSteve McQueen: Works. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Basel, 2012, pp. 28, 34, ill.
Aoife Rosenmeyer. "Steve McQueen." Art in America 101 (June–July 2013), pp. 171–72.
Claire Hoffmann inI Want the Screen to be a Massive Mirror: Lectures on Steve McQueen. Exh. cat., Schaulager Basel. Basel, 2013, p. 163.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
