Richard Hamilton: Word and Image, Alan Cristea Gallery

In association with the major Hamilton retrospective at Tate Modern, The Alan Cristea Gallery will be displaying a collection of Hamilton’s prints from over 40 years and thus from most of his working life. The prints on display highlight Hamilton’s engagement (and disenchantment) with what was happening around him on a social and political level - as well as his irreverent approach to in classical and modern themes. Most importantly, it highlights his enormous creativity, inventiveness and ingenuity in the genre of printmaking.

Among the prints on display will be the screen print Adonis in Y fronts (1963) which explores the concept of modern day masculinity through the juxtaposition of classical and modern iconography. It is based on a painting of the same name and the title, a pun on the Jimmy Clanton song Venus in Blue Jeans (1962), and Hamilton drew the imagery of the piece from such wide ranging sources as Mr Universo - the body building magazine (1960), Life magazine and an advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes. 

A number of prints from the Swingeing London 1967 series also feature. The subject is a photographic image of Hamilton’s friend and art dealer Robert Fraser, depicited alongside Mick Jagger as the two were being driven away from court after facing down drugs charges. The title, another play on words, references the words of the judge in the case: 'there are times when a swingeing sentence acts as a deterrent’. As a whole, the series is a biting critique of this thinking, and the subsequent conviction of his friend Fraser (later to be quashed), as well as the draconian attitudes to substance abuse of the time.

This exhibition is a must see alongside the exhibitions at the Tate and ICA (which is staging its own recreation of two iconic early Hamilton installations). We get a real sense through Hamilton’s work of the development of social attitudes to morality: the pieces take on a kind of snapshot function, showcasing contemporary socio-political critiques whilst referencing the technological advances of each era. 

The Alan Cristea Gallery, which has been personally associated with Hamilton since 1974, will also be publishing the first posthumous catalogue of Hamilton’s prints with text included from two of his previous exhibitions - ‘Penny plain, tuppence coloured’ and ‘New technology and Printmaking’- both held at the gallery.