Pop Art Pioneer Richard Hamilton Dies at the Age of 89

Written by Julian Thomasson Tuesday, 13 September 2011 22:02

London (BBC).- British artist Richard Hamilton, regarded as a pioneer in the field of Pop art, has died at the age of 89 following a short illness. The London-born artist's best known work was a 1956 collage featuring a body builder and a tin of ham, which earned him the title "Father of Pop". The Gagosian Gallery, which announced his death, said the art world had "lost one of its leading lights". He was working on a major retrospective just days before he died. The exhibition is due to be seen in London, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Madrid next year.

Larry Gagosian, who owns several galleries around the world, said: "This is a very sad day for all of us and our thoughts are with Richard's family, particularly his wife Rita and son Rod." Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota said Hamilton died as he "would have wished", working on his art. In an interview with the BBC last year, Hamilton said: "I've always done exactly I wanted to do and I've always had the good fortune to do that." The artist was born in London in 1922, trained as an engineering draftsman and worked at EMI during World War II. He studied at London's Royal Academy but was expelled after defying the teacher's instructions. Hamilton went on to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, leaving in 1951. A year later, Hamilton founded the Independent Group at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, with Eduardo Paolozzi, Lawrence Alloway and several other architects. This group helped to develop English Pop Art.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he also taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal College of Art, where he was an early supporter of David Hockney. Aside from his famous collages, Hamilton also designed the cover of the Beatles' White Album and poster in 1968. Hamilton's design is the only Beatles' album cover that does not show the four band members. The artist told how Sir Paul McCartney called him to ask him to design the new cover. Hamilton said: "Peter Blake's album sleeve (for Sgt Pepper) was crowded with people and very colourful. I thought it would be appropriate to present an album that was just white." During his career, Hamilton exhibited at some of the world's most famous art galleries, including the Tate in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. His later work focused on political images, which often parodied post-war consumerism. Serota said: "This fascination with the consumer society was highly critical, a moral position that was also evident in his distrust of the political establishment ranging from Mrs Thatcher to Tony Blair and Hugh Gaitskell."

Shock and Awe (2007-08) featured Tony Blair wearing a cowboy shirt, with guns and holsters. Hamilton said he produced the image after he saw Blair "looking smug" following a conference with George Bush. In 2010, London's Serpentine Gallery exhibited Hamilton's Modern Moral Matters, which focused on his political and protest works. Asked recently about being called the father of Pop art, Hamilton said it was not a term he aligned himself with. "While I was interested in the pop phenomenon, I never associated myself with the term, which I used to describe Elvis Presley and rather vulgar American imagery of ice cream cones or hamburgers," he said. "However, significant things were happening in the 1950s and it seemed not only to be a cool moment but a momentous moment for humanity."

In 1992, the Tate Gallery in London organised a major retrospective of Hamilton's career with an accompanying catalogue which provides the most comprehensive review of his career. In 1993 Hamilton represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale and was awarded the Golden Lion.

His definition of Pop Art from a letter to the Smithsons dated 16 January 1957 was - "Pop Art is: popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business" - stressing its everyday, commonplace values.

Hamilton's second great influence on the art of today was his championing of Duchamp at a time when the Frenchman's subversive philosophical art was largely forgotten. One of Hamilton's masterpieces is his replica of Duchamp's Large Glass, in Tate Modern.

We're getting to the reason why Hamilton is not as famous as some British artists who may be less significant than he was. He was an intellectual. He did not go for the guts, but the brain. His art is thoughtful, uneasy, even as it celebrates the power of technology. It also became increasingly political. He confronted issues from the Irish Troubles to both Iraq wars in works that dropped the cool mask for outright engagement, making him even more of a meaty and serious proposition.

Artistic celebrity may soon fade, for in the long run it is works of art, not artists, that survive. The historical fate of today's art will depend on the power of images to endure generations. By that measure Hamilton is the true success story of modern British art. He has created deeply memorable works – beginning with that 1956 collage – that are undying icons of the modern world.


Swingeing London, pictured above in which Mick Jagger in lurid green jacket is enclosed in the back of a police car, shielding his face against the media glare, is a great modern history painting. So is Hamilton's portrait of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. These works analyse the way images are made, yet their intellect is saturated with outrage and compassion. Swingeing London stands as one of the most powerful and haunting pictures of our times. It will never be forgotten.

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