Richard Hamilton, Adonis in Y fronts 1963. Tate. © The estate of Richard Hamilton.
This display brings together paintings and prints Hamilton made between the 1950s and the 1970s, when modern consumer culture emerged in Britain
‘I would like to think of my purpose as a search for what is epic in everyday objects and everyday attitudes.’
Richard Hamilton was relentlessly curious about what it means to live in a world saturated by mass-produced objects and images. He was suspicious of the divide between traditional ‘high’ art and the seductive visual culture of everyday life: the cinema, television, advertising, glossy magazines. In 1957, the artist proposed the first definition of Pop Art: ‘Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low cost, Mass produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big Business.’
Taking popular culture as his subject matter – especially that imported from the USA – Hamilton described his approach as shaped by a ‘peculiar mixture of reverence and cynicism.’ Under his critical gaze, codes of sexuality and gender are deconstructed, and the increasingly commercialised relationship between the human body and its environment comes into focus.
Hamilton’s creative process was complex and experimental. Starting with images borrowed from mass media, he typically combined multiple techniques in ways that tested their ability to represent reality. Often unfolding in series, the works here repeat, distort and decontextualise found images, asking us to question what we see.
Franciszka Themerson, Two Pious Persons Making their Way to Heaven, one propellered, one helicoptered, with a little angel below 1951
By 1950 Franciszka Themerson had developed a distinctive painting style. She drew small figures into a surface covered in oil paint and placed them within abstract forms. Here, these flying figures refer to her experiences in London. She described spending ‘days in the City, having endless talks with bowler-hatted businessmen who introduced me to the fascinating games of small talk and avoiding issues’. She began to sketch them, putting propellers on their noses and letting them fly. She wondered, ‘how would all these little very important people behave in my abstract canvases?’.
Gallery label, October 2019
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artworks in Richard Hamilton
Franciszka Themerson, Stefan Themerson, The Adventure of a Good Citizen 1937
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artworks in Richard Hamilton
Art in this room
Franciszka Themerson
Two Pious Persons Making their Way to Heaven, one propellered, one helicoptered, with a little angel below
1951
Franciszka Themerson, Stefan Themerson
The Adventure of a Good Citizen
1937
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Franciszka Themerson
Escape I
1940
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Franciszka Themerson
Embankment (Self portrait)
1940–1941
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Franciszka Themerson
Dialogue on Tower Bridge
1941
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Franciszka Themerson
Escape II (Flight into Egypt)
1941
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