Richard Hamilton - Tate Modern and ICA

Richard Hamilton, Swingeing London, 1967

Richard Hamilton is at Tate Modern until 26 May 2014 and at the ICA until 6 April 2014.

Richard Hamilton is routinely labelled as the 'Father of British Pop Art', principally because of his wonderful, prescient 1956 collage Just what is it about today's homes that makes them so different, so appealing? (see below) and his early (1957) definition of Pop: Pop Art is: 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. However, despite this, and a handful of other seminal works classified as 'British Pop', his wide ranging interests and restless experimentation meant that his work largely escapes such a narrow classification.

The exhibition at Tate Modern presents a huge range of his work from student etchings made in 1949 through to the work he was making at the time of his death in 2011, and includes a reconstruction of his 1956 installation Fun House and his replica of Marcel Duchamp's 'Large Glass'.

Complementing the Tate’s show the ICA is also showing reconstructions of two installations, Man, Machine and Motion (1955) and An Exhibit (1957).

Read reviews by Adrian Searle, Richard Cork, Laura Cumming, Jackie Wullschlager, Brian Sewell and Mark Hudson and an article by Fiona MacCarthy.

Richard Hamilton, Man, Machine and Motion, 1955 (reconstructed for ICA 2014)

Richard Hamilton, Just what is it about today's homes that makes them so different, so appealing?, 1956

Richard Hamilton, Interior II, 1964

Richard Hamilton, Portrait of Hugh Gaitskell as a Famous Monster of Filmland, 1964

Marcel Duchamp / Richard Hamilton, The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23; replica 1965-6

Richard Hamilton, The Citizen, 1981-3

Richard Hamilton, Self-Portrait 05.3.81, 1990

Richard Hamilton, 1922 - 2011

Richard Hamilton died on 13 September, 2011. Read obituary by the late Norbert Lynton (1927 - 2007) and by Tim Head in Art Monthly, October 2011, No.350, p22. See also article based on an interview with Hans-Ulrich Obrist: Pop Daddy, in Tate Magazine, Issue 4 (2003) and Remembering Richard Hamilton as a Design Critic, by Alice Twemlow. Below is a selection of his work.

Richard Hamilton, Portrait of Hugh Gaitskell as a Famous Monster of Filmland, 1964

Richard Hamilton, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, 1956 (Tate Collection)

Richard Hamilton, Hommage a Chrysler Corp., 1957 (Tate Collection)

Richard Hamilton, My Marilyn, 1965 (Tate Collection)

Richard Hamilton, Epiphany, 1964

Richard Hamilton, Swingeing London 67, 1968-9 (Tate Collection)

Richard Hamilton, The Citizen, 1982-3 (Tate Collection)

Marcel Duchamp, La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même: The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass),  1915-23, reconstruction by Richard Hamilton 1965-6, lower panel remade 1985 (Tate Collection)