Richard Hamilton

As my work is moving into the experimental stage, i am taking influence from my chosen artists and producing work which has little in terms of composition and in turn i would like to find more direction. This is why i think i have been so taken by these works from Richard Hamilton. I have always been influenced by pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, so when i found these fashion plates by Hamilton they seemed to relate closely to the type of work i have wanted to produce and they have a sense of irony and display distortion of the female psyche in terms of beauty/fashion.

Fashion-plate 1969-70

Photo-offset lithograph, collage, screenprint and pochoir, retouched with cosmetics on wove paper with watermark.

I was first struck by the composition of this image. It looks very polished and clean, even though it is collage (which has a stereotypically messed-together look). This is more how i would like my pieces to finish. The images used are taken from magazine cut outs and come together to create one image. This particular plate doesn't use paint, however i'd like to try create some of my own experiments and use paint to add pop-art facial features more like the image below. 


I will also use images from magazines but then go on to try my again own images of my female friends and sisters. This is a study for a fashion plate (1969) and is something i may try to do using acrylic on sketch book paper before trying to move on too quickly. I need some primary paintings of faces to develop my skills and ensure it will look effective before deciding it will go into my more finalised outcomes.

About Richard Hamilton

(Four Self Portraits)
Richard Hamilton was born in London and attended the Slade school of art from 1948-51. Hamilton ironically defined Pop Art in 1957 as ‘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’.
Hamiltons work reflects and critiques on a large amount of current and popular media events. Like a lot of the artists i have researched and taken influence from, Hamilton finds his imagery in newspapers, magazines, television, film and advertising which are then subjected to his collage and painting techniques. This is the same process i am enjoying experimenting with. Hamilton tends to also take it a step further and visit screenprinting, lithography and generally painting over photography. This may be something to also visit.