Richard Hamilton

Sitterback to top

• Richard Hamilton (1922-2011), Painter. Sitter in 11 portraits, Artist of 2 portraits.

Artistback to top

• Richard Hamilton (1922-2011), Painter. Artist of 2 portraits, Sitter in 11 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Produced in the year of Hamilton's first museum retrospective, at the Tate Gallery, London, this self-portrait is one of a series of studies entitled Portrait of the Artist by Francis Bacon. The starting point was a rejected photograph taken by his fellow artist Francis Bacon as part of Hamilton's Polaroid Portraits project. Hamilton had asked a number of artists to take his photograph as a way of investigating whether their particular style would be evident in a work produced using mechanical apparatus.
Hamilton was skilled in a variety of printmaking technologies and here he uses screen printing to interpret Bacon's style of painting, distorting his own features to mimic Bacon's characteristic brushwork. The portrait reflects Hamilton's persistent interest in the change in our understanding of a subject under different modes of presentation.

Linked publicationsback to top

• Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 275

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

• Richard Hamilton: Portraits of the Artist (19 January 2011 - 13 May 2012)
• Twentieth Century Printmakers (18 June 2005 - 8 January 2006)

Subject/Themeback to top

• Self-portraits