God Save the Queen

Artist: Jamie Reid

Jamie Reid created several different versions of his God Save the Queen design for the Sex Pistols’ song of the same name. The most notable is his appropriation of a black and white portrait of Queen Elizabeth II taken by photographer Cecil Beaton during her jubilee celebration. Reid altered and changed the context of Beaton’s photograph with the addition of his signature cut-and-paste lettering spelling “God Save the Queen” and “Sex Pistols” which blocks out her eyes and mouth. This stylistic technique is indicative of Reid’s application of décollage, where a composition is created through cutting, tearing away or partially removing elements of appropriated images. It is the opposite of collage, which is also heavily used by punk artists. Author Dan Brady explains that Reid’s style, “subtly draws your attention away from the Queen’s portrait, making her inclusion to the piece less important, which is the whole point of the anarchic ideology. The tearing away of the Queen’s features also is symbolic of this idea that the monarchy should be abolished. The removal of her eyes also seems to suggest that the Queen is covering her own eyes so that she doesn’t have to look at the mess that society was in at the time, as if she was purposefully trying to be unaware of what was going on.” Reid’s artwork, and the Sex Pistols song that he created the work of art for, was controversial. They were released during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne. The Queen and the Royal Family had few mainstream critics at the time, but the popularity of the Sex Pistols’ song and Reid’s striking imagery, represented a sharp rebuttal to the British monarchical system and the overarching political and social atmosphere of the UK. The release of the single “God Save the Queen” and Reid’s artwork were accompanied by several publicity stunts and mainstream media appearances, making it an instantly recognizable and politically charged image. In an alternative and even more confrontational version of God Save the Queen Reid places swastikas over the monarch’s eyes and pierces her lips together with a safety pin. Both the swastika and safety pin are representational imagery that have been appropriated by punk musicians and artists in attempts to make abject, shocking, and rebellious statements in opposition to social, political, and cultural norms.

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