Exhibitions
Richard Hamilton
to be shown alongside a selection of British Art from the 1960s and 1970s
November 11 - December 15, 2006
New York - 19 East 66th Street
NEW YORK - An exhibition that includes major works from the period 1954 to 1983 by
Richard Hamilton (b. 1922) will be on view at Dickinson, 19 East 66th Street, New York
from November 11 to December 15, 2006. This is the first time since a retrospective in 1973
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York that many works from such a wide
ranging time period have been exhibited in the United States. A fully illustrated catalogue
with an essay contributed by Richard Cork and a foreword by John Richardson accompanies
the exhibition. Richard Cork is a senior art critic at The Times (London), and is the award-
winning author of numerous books on modern art. John Richardson, Picasso's biographer
and renowned art historian, is the author of numerous articles and books and a contributor
to The New York Review of Books and Vanity Fair.
Born in London in 1922, Richard Hamilton is recognized internationally as a forerunner or
founder of Pop Art. In a 1957 letter to Alison and Peter Smithson, the famous British
architects who were also central figures in the avant-garde cultural scene in 1950s London,
he famously defined the term "Pop" as 'popular, transient, expendable, low cost, mass
produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous and big business'. But while Hamilton's
fame is tied closely with Pop Art, his work falls into a category all its own, exhibitingpreoccupations that are far deeper and wider than the concept "Pop" can begin to suggest.
Hamilton has described his paintings as being 'of and about our society'. Hamilton's vision
and art engages with a vast array of subjects, from lyrical landscape to space exploration,
from architecture and design to eroticism, and from great art of the past to contemporary
moral issues. His art translates a modern sensibility into a visual style, making him one of the
most significant post-war artists in the world today, continuously re-defining the boundaries
in his work as a painter, product designer, printmaker and thinker.
A continuous thread is social and political concern. His works address issues such as the
artifice of fashion, personal relationships, modern design, the isolation of media idols, civil
liberty, the experience of modern warfare, national health care, etc. His concern with
analysis, wit and process ran counter to the prevailing fashion in the 1950s and 60s for the
more emotional style of Abstract Expressionism. The work of Jasper Johns (of which
Hamilton was unaware until well into his Pop period) provides an interesting American
parallel in terms of the major shift in focus on the role of process in art. Significantly, both
Johns and Hamilton were younger friends and admirers of Marcel Duchamp. It is
Hamilton's predilection for the posing and solving of specific problems as well as his over-
riding concern with the integration of popular culture and everyday direct visual experience
with fine art that constitutes the essential unity of his body of work.
The earliest of Hamilton's works in the exhibition is his
seminal early work of 1954, Trainsition III. The title, a
pun on "Train sit I on", is a study of motion perspective
and represents Hamilton's recurring preoccupation with
complexity, movement and flux, themes previously
explored by Duchamp, an acknowledged influence on
the artist. The subject also evokes the sense of the
increasingly accelerating and technically sophisticated
pace of life of the 1950s. Also reflected is Hamilton's
primary concern: the integration of art with everyday
direct visual experience. The Tate Gallery, London owns
another work from this series of four, Trainsition IV.
Exhibited as the centerpiece of his first Tate Gallery
retrospective in 1970, Hamilton'sFashion Plate series
is regarded as one of the artist's most significant and
influential creations of the 1960s. One of theFashion
Plates included in Dickinson's exhibition, Cosmetic
Study IV - produced in 1969 as part of a series of
twelve - is an important example of the artist's over-
riding concern with the assimilation of popular
culture into fine art. In this series Hamilton
combines high art with the materials and forms of
mass commercial culture, drawing on the popular
fashion and cosmetics magazines of the day. Each
plate is comprised of a single head of a fashion model, placed in the context of the
photographic "fashion shoot", with elements taken from any number of separate heads and
bodies. Thus, the artist is merging disparate ingredients into new wholes, creating a sense of
unity and discrepancy at once. The alteration of the human form is a central theme of
Hamilton's oeuvre.
Another highlight of the exhibition is The
Solomon R Guggenheim (Metalflake) of
1965-66. During the period 1964 to 1967
Hamilton approached subject matter in terms
of categories: i.e. still-life, landscape, self-
portrait, buildings, etc. His interest lay in
whether a successful work could be based on
a new building – one conceived as a work of
high art in itself, an aim related to his previous
use of Braun appliances in his 1965 Still-life.
Hamilton executed his Guggenheim Museum
works in a series of six. In this series a single centralized image executed in a heavy relief of
fiberglass, acrylic and, in this instance, Metalflake, shows Hamilton's interest in process –
both aesthetic and technical – with the relief echoing the design and construction. Hamilton
said 'it was an attempt to mirror the whole activity of architecture in the confines of a 4 feet
square panel.' Although the form of each relief is the same there is considerable variation of
treatment in the finish, which was applied with an airgun. All six treatments disembody the
building's dramatic 3-dimensional form by transposing it into a skin of color and texture
with independent associations and effects. The Solomon R Guggenheim (Metalflake) is the
most pictorial of all the reliefs and is the only one that isolates the building from its
background, sprayed with "Sky Blue' Metalflake, a brand of automobile finish which refers
back to Hamilton's car-styling interests. Others from this series are owned by The Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Gallery, London and the Louisiana Museum of Art in
Denmark.
The artist's over-riding concern with the
assimilation of popular culture and technological
advancement into fine art is exemplified in his
seminal, sound-emitting 1973-79 work, Lux 50 –
functioning prototype, which is another
highlight of the exhibition. This combination of
a fully functioning amplifier with an object-
painting is Hamilton's response to a commission
from the Lux Corporation, Osaka, to
commemorate their 50th anniversary. In
Hamilton's own words, 'The proposal was that I
might clad one of their production amplifiers in some "Pop" sculptural treatment.'
Hamilton himselfprovided the general specification for the Hi-Fi, drawing on his experience
as a draughtsman in the EMI factory between 1942 to 1945, and also designed the control
panel. Lux 50 achieves full functionality and thus serves to achieve the artist's ultimate
objective: to straddle the boundaries between product design and fine art. The work compels
the viewer to ask 'What exactly am I looking at?'
Richard Hamilton's widely exhibited works are in numerous public and private collections
including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery, London, The British Council, Museum
Ludwig, Cologne, Kunstmuseum, Winterthur, the Cultural Foundation Against Apartheid,
Paris, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humelbaek, IVAM, Valencia, the Swindon
Museum + Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, the City Art
Gallery, Birmingham, the Neues Museum, Nurnburg, the McMaster Museum of Art,
Ontario, the Staatliche Museen, Kassel, the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt and the
Ho-Am Art Museum, Seoul.
Alongside this exhibition Dickinson will be showing a
group of paintings by key British artists from the 1960s
and 1970s, including Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, Bridget
Riley, and Joe Tilson.
About Dickinson:
Dickinson was established in 1993 as a discreet alternative
to buying and selling at public auction. We specialize in
negotiating sales on a commission basis of important Old
Master, British, Nineteenth Century, Impressionist,
Modern, Post-War and Contemporary art. As well as
dealing in fine art, our range of services includes advice on
the purchase and sale of paintings and works of art at auction, appraisals and valuations, and
curatorial services. In addition to the gallery in New York, Dickinson has offices in London,
Paris and Berlin.
Download PDF (401 K)
Richard Hamilton (b. 1922) will be on view at Dickinson, 19 East 66th Street, New York
from November 11 to December 15, 2006. This is the first time since a retrospective in 1973
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York that many works from such a wide
ranging time period have been exhibited in the United States. A fully illustrated catalogue
with an essay contributed by Richard Cork and a foreword by John Richardson accompanies
the exhibition. Richard Cork is a senior art critic at The Times (London), and is the award-
winning author of numerous books on modern art. John Richardson, Picasso's biographer
and renowned art historian, is the author of numerous articles and books and a contributor
to The New York Review of Books and Vanity Fair.
Born in London in 1922, Richard Hamilton is recognized internationally as a forerunner or
founder of Pop Art. In a 1957 letter to Alison and Peter Smithson, the famous British
architects who were also central figures in the avant-garde cultural scene in 1950s London,
he famously defined the term "Pop" as 'popular, transient, expendable, low cost, mass
produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous and big business'. But while Hamilton's
fame is tied closely with Pop Art, his work falls into a category all its own, exhibitingpreoccupations that are far deeper and wider than the concept "Pop" can begin to suggest.
Hamilton has described his paintings as being 'of and about our society'. Hamilton's vision
and art engages with a vast array of subjects, from lyrical landscape to space exploration,
from architecture and design to eroticism, and from great art of the past to contemporary
moral issues. His art translates a modern sensibility into a visual style, making him one of the
most significant post-war artists in the world today, continuously re-defining the boundaries
in his work as a painter, product designer, printmaker and thinker.
A continuous thread is social and political concern. His works address issues such as the
artifice of fashion, personal relationships, modern design, the isolation of media idols, civil
liberty, the experience of modern warfare, national health care, etc. His concern with
analysis, wit and process ran counter to the prevailing fashion in the 1950s and 60s for the
more emotional style of Abstract Expressionism. The work of Jasper Johns (of which
Hamilton was unaware until well into his Pop period) provides an interesting American
parallel in terms of the major shift in focus on the role of process in art. Significantly, both
Johns and Hamilton were younger friends and admirers of Marcel Duchamp. It is
Hamilton's predilection for the posing and solving of specific problems as well as his over-
riding concern with the integration of popular culture and everyday direct visual experience
with fine art that constitutes the essential unity of his body of work.
The earliest of Hamilton's works in the exhibition is his
seminal early work of 1954, Trainsition III. The title, a
pun on "Train sit I on", is a study of motion perspective
and represents Hamilton's recurring preoccupation with
complexity, movement and flux, themes previously
explored by Duchamp, an acknowledged influence on
the artist. The subject also evokes the sense of the
increasingly accelerating and technically sophisticated
pace of life of the 1950s. Also reflected is Hamilton's
primary concern: the integration of art with everyday
direct visual experience. The Tate Gallery, London owns
another work from this series of four, Trainsition IV.
Exhibited as the centerpiece of his first Tate Gallery
retrospective in 1970, Hamilton'sFashion Plate series
is regarded as one of the artist's most significant and
influential creations of the 1960s. One of theFashion
Plates included in Dickinson's exhibition, Cosmetic
Study IV - produced in 1969 as part of a series of
twelve - is an important example of the artist's over-
riding concern with the assimilation of popular
culture into fine art. In this series Hamilton
combines high art with the materials and forms of
mass commercial culture, drawing on the popular
fashion and cosmetics magazines of the day. Each
plate is comprised of a single head of a fashion model, placed in the context of the
photographic "fashion shoot", with elements taken from any number of separate heads and
bodies. Thus, the artist is merging disparate ingredients into new wholes, creating a sense of
unity and discrepancy at once. The alteration of the human form is a central theme of
Hamilton's oeuvre.
Another highlight of the exhibition is The
Solomon R Guggenheim (Metalflake) of
1965-66. During the period 1964 to 1967
Hamilton approached subject matter in terms
of categories: i.e. still-life, landscape, self-
portrait, buildings, etc. His interest lay in
whether a successful work could be based on
a new building – one conceived as a work of
high art in itself, an aim related to his previous
use of Braun appliances in his 1965 Still-life.
Hamilton executed his Guggenheim Museum
works in a series of six. In this series a single centralized image executed in a heavy relief of
fiberglass, acrylic and, in this instance, Metalflake, shows Hamilton's interest in process –
both aesthetic and technical – with the relief echoing the design and construction. Hamilton
said 'it was an attempt to mirror the whole activity of architecture in the confines of a 4 feet
square panel.' Although the form of each relief is the same there is considerable variation of
treatment in the finish, which was applied with an airgun. All six treatments disembody the
building's dramatic 3-dimensional form by transposing it into a skin of color and texture
with independent associations and effects. The Solomon R Guggenheim (Metalflake) is the
most pictorial of all the reliefs and is the only one that isolates the building from its
background, sprayed with "Sky Blue' Metalflake, a brand of automobile finish which refers
back to Hamilton's car-styling interests. Others from this series are owned by The Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Gallery, London and the Louisiana Museum of Art in
Denmark.
The artist's over-riding concern with the
assimilation of popular culture and technological
advancement into fine art is exemplified in his
seminal, sound-emitting 1973-79 work, Lux 50 –
functioning prototype, which is another
highlight of the exhibition. This combination of
a fully functioning amplifier with an object-
painting is Hamilton's response to a commission
from the Lux Corporation, Osaka, to
commemorate their 50th anniversary. In
Hamilton's own words, 'The proposal was that I
might clad one of their production amplifiers in some "Pop" sculptural treatment.'
Hamilton himselfprovided the general specification for the Hi-Fi, drawing on his experience
as a draughtsman in the EMI factory between 1942 to 1945, and also designed the control
panel. Lux 50 achieves full functionality and thus serves to achieve the artist's ultimate
objective: to straddle the boundaries between product design and fine art. The work compels
the viewer to ask 'What exactly am I looking at?'
Richard Hamilton's widely exhibited works are in numerous public and private collections
including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery, London, The British Council, Museum
Ludwig, Cologne, Kunstmuseum, Winterthur, the Cultural Foundation Against Apartheid,
Paris, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humelbaek, IVAM, Valencia, the Swindon
Museum + Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, the City Art
Gallery, Birmingham, the Neues Museum, Nurnburg, the McMaster Museum of Art,
Ontario, the Staatliche Museen, Kassel, the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt and the
Ho-Am Art Museum, Seoul.
Alongside this exhibition Dickinson will be showing a
group of paintings by key British artists from the 1960s
and 1970s, including Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, Bridget
Riley, and Joe Tilson.
About Dickinson:
Dickinson was established in 1993 as a discreet alternative
to buying and selling at public auction. We specialize in
negotiating sales on a commission basis of important Old
Master, British, Nineteenth Century, Impressionist,
Modern, Post-War and Contemporary art. As well as
dealing in fine art, our range of services includes advice on
the purchase and sale of paintings and works of art at auction, appraisals and valuations, and
curatorial services. In addition to the gallery in New York, Dickinson has offices in London,
Paris and Berlin.
Download PDF (401 K)