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A tribute to Harland Miller’s time spent in Paris as a young artist and writer during the 1990s, OUI is inspired by the frontispiece from Miller’s 2021 exhibition, The French Letter Paintings, at White Cube’s Paris Salon. Following on from his well-known series of fictional book cover paintings, the Letter Paintings and works on paper began with the idea of using a single word, often with just one or two syllables, as a book title and the focus for gestural abstraction.
Miller describes: “I’ve ended up making a series of Oui paintings. The word itself is pleasing and also composed of a series of pleasing letter forms all of which have an equal part to play in the overall pronunciation of the word – so, each letter is equally important to portray in the painting. Oui is also just a really positive word that you could reasonably be forgiven for wanting to hear over and over – better than “oh mais non!””
With a nod to Charles Dickens, Miller wryly refers to his time in Paris as “the best of times and the worst of times”: an emotional and artistic coming of age. Continuing this dichotomy, OUI marries the poetic with the punchline, accruing multiple meanings through popular use.
OUI has been created through multiple layers of woodcut printing, with hand-finishing by the print studio.
