.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Created in 1968, Richard Hamilton’s People is one of four unique artist’s proofs from a series of works based on a black and white postcard of Whitley Bay. Standing apart from the edition of 26 prints based on the same photographic source image, the present work combines collage, gouache and screen printing on top of an enlarged detail of the original picture. The work is situated within Hamilton’s artistic explorations of the 1960s, during which he sought to push the boundaries of image-making, enlarging and manipulating photographs and pushing recognisable forms into near abstraction. The virtuosic combination of techniques in People takes the work closer to the breaking point of legibility: the figures captured by the original photograph dissolve to loose, indefinable shapes, creating a mesmerizing abstract terrain that glimmers with faint traces of human forms. Through cropping, magnifying and silkscreening the original photograph, layering the surface with paint and collage by hand, Hamilton sought to reveal new information latent in his source image. The artist explained how ‘as this texture of anonymous humanity is penetrated, it yields more fragments of knowledge about individuals isolated within it as well as endless patterns of group relationships’ (R. Hamilton, quoted in Richard Hamilton, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 1992, p.161). The present work was acquired by the architect Colin St John Wilson, a friend of the artist.
Hamilton had originally purchased the black and white postcard of Whitley Bay in 1965. From the original image, he produced the People series, beginning in 1965-66 with a work combining oil and cellulose on a photographic enlargement. Four further versions were made: People/Popel, People Multiple, People Again, and People. The latter was produced in an edition of 26 plus one artist’s proof. Hamilton then went on to make four further artist’s proofs, each of which was a unique extension of the People project. The present work is one of these four. In this version there is a special mount and there are noticeably more hand-painted marks, collaged elements and screen printing. Through these technical interventions, People approaches the ‘moment of loss that became the true series of the subject’ (R. Hamilton, quoted in Richard Hamilton: prints and screenprints, exh. cat. Stededlijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1971).
Hamilton had originally purchased the black and white postcard of Whitley Bay in 1965. From the original image, he produced the People series, beginning in 1965-66 with a work combining oil and cellulose on a photographic enlargement. Four further versions were made: People/Popel, People Multiple, People Again, and People. The latter was produced in an edition of 26 plus one artist’s proof. Hamilton then went on to make four further artist’s proofs, each of which was a unique extension of the People project. The present work is one of these four. In this version there is a special mount and there are noticeably more hand-painted marks, collaged elements and screen printing. Through these technical interventions, People approaches the ‘moment of loss that became the true series of the subject’ (R. Hamilton, quoted in Richard Hamilton: prints and screenprints, exh. cat. Stededlijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1971).