Richard Hamilton

Richard Hamilton

Richard Hamilton was born on February 24th 1922. He is an English painter and collage artist. His 1956 collage titled Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? Was produced for the This Is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in London. It had been considered by critics and historians to be one of the early works of Pop Art.

Richard Hamilton had grown up in the Pimlico area of London. He had left school with no formal qualifications. Hamilton got work as an apprentice for and electrical components firm. By working there he had discovered ability for draftsmanship's and then began to do evening paint classes at St Martin’s School of Art, which then got him an entry into a royal academy school. He eventually went to the Slade School of Art, University College London. After two being there Hamilton began exhibiting at the institute of Contemporary Arts. This is where he also produced posters leaflets and started teaching at the Central School of Art and Design.

In the 1970’s Hamilton enjoyed major international exhibitions that was being organised of his work. Hamilton had found a new partner Rita Donagh and together they set about converting the North End.

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

A quote written in a letter to the Smithson’s from Richard Hamilton

"Pop Art is: popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business".

Hamilton is also known as a expert in printmaker.

In February 2002, the British Museum staged an exhibition of Hamilton's illustrations of James Joyce's Ulysses that was titled as Imaging Ulysses.