20th cent. art: Richard Hamilton

            Previous to WWII, America was not considered a world power by the global community. By the 1950s the Allies had won and the United States and the Soviet Union entered a Cold War. The United States came on top as a world power and saw itself as the protector from communism and its sphere of influence. Aside from the political problems, the Western powers had entered the new age of modernism. New technologies brought forth new ways of living and the people accepted these devices readily, thus the consumer culture was born. In the art world, specifically Britain, artists were commenting on the current consumer culture and critiqued how it changed the way society based its ideals. Called Pop art after the tootsie pop in Richard Hamilton’s famous piece, the art movement first comprised of British artists that were involved in the Individual Group in London. This group focused on discussing the place of art in a consumer society. Richard Hamilton’s piece Interior focused on the visual culture and comments on the ideals of the consumer culture.

            Seeing that art was being replaced by advertising to define beauty, Richard Hamilton made collages composed from various advertising magazines. Using old and new techniques of print making he was able to create interesting pieces. The piece Interior is a good example of his collage work. The piece juxtaposes different sections of advertisement prints. Some are colored and some are monochromatic. Hamilton juxtaposes the pieces to fit together, as if the scene is actually from a home magazine. Hamilton adds a television and fancy furniture to comment on societies need to define itself by the materials it possesses. Wendy Weitman from the Museum of Modern art states that, “through a complex layering of painting and photographic techniques, he [Hamilton] continues to examine issues of illusion and the processes of image-making.”

            Hamilton began his ideas of his collages from a film still in the film Shockproof while teaching a class in Newcastle Polytechnic. Lying on the floor, the still intrigued Hamilton by how it was arranged compositionally. Hamilton describes the still as focusing all attention on a girl in a ‘new look’ coat. Hamilton further notes that the girl’s angle seems awkward as the perspective seems distorted. What really toke Hamilton back though was the fact the still was not of an actual place but of a film set, so the wall were not together and the lighting in the still came from different angles. All these elements inspired Hamilton to experiment with his collages and some paintings specifically focusing on the interior. Interior echoes Hamilton’s experience by having the walls of the interior placed at awkward angles which gives no clear angle of perspective. The walls also don’t seem to be conjoined and the enlargement of some of the furniture creates a feeling of unease as you see a living space in a correctly placed atmosphere, but the direct manipulation of the objects around the woman are varied in scale. From a simple film still Hamilton was able to create compelling dynamic compositions that not only focus on the composition of art, but as well as the life of the consumer culture.

References:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-interior-p04250/text-summary

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A2481&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1