Life and career
Origins and training
Born in London, Hamilton studied at several art schools and worked as an engineering draughtsman during the war. Advertising and technical drawing remained useful points of reference.
Places, turning points and artistic change
As part of the Independent Group, he examined mass media and consumer goods. Collage, painting and prints brought modern interiors, products and celebrity images together without simply celebrating them.
Beyond the studio
Teaching, exhibition design and a close engagement with Marcel Duchamp widened his influence. He helped establish a British route into Pop Art through research and image selection as well as painting.
Works across a career
Selected examples, not a complete catalogue. Read date ranges and attributions before inferring a career sequence.
Reading the selected works together
The pin-up, interior and Marilyn print focus on different forms of desire shaped by mass-media images.
- 01
1961
1961
Pin-up
- Material / technique
- Mixed-media work
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- MoMA — Richard Hamilton
A media image is rebuilt rather than treated as a transparent record.
- 02
1964, published 1965
1964, published 1965
Interior
- Material / technique
- Screenprint
- Attribution / role
- Collection / source
- The Museum of Modern Art
Artist-wide context
Collage let him bring advertisements, products and modern interiors together and examine the life they promised.
- 03
1965; published 1966
1965; published 1966
My Marilyn
- Material / technique
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- MoMA — Richard Hamilton
Marks and selected photographs bring editing into the picture.
Materials, marks and colour
Media and surface
Painted and reproduced images can share one surface.
Marks and structure
Sharp cuts and competing image scales reveal the constructed promise of advertising.
Palette and light
Commercial gloss and selected bright colour are tools to examine, not merely imitate, desire.