7 May 2022
Richard Hamilton
18 March
- 7 May 2022
IN PRAISE OF DESPAIR
THE PAINTER’S DESPAIR
In Picardy, in Brabant, in the neighbouring provinces and doubtless in other places, grows a wild flower. A long time has passed since I saw it. I no longer wander along lanes and hedgerows; and then, roads have vanished the ditches-asphalt has done its task well. How has this unforgettable flower fared amidst the devastation of the countryside? Though my memories of it date from the 1930s and are forever mingled in my mind with inflation, I could still describe the appearance of that flower-were it not composed of an infinity of points so closely enmeshed that a complete description of its aspect would require a visual acuity available only to science. Does it still live, this accursed flower, known to country folk as The Painter’s Despair?
THE ART-LOVER’S DESPAIR
These flowers, planted in paper, remote from seeds and seasons, do not speak the language of the heart as once was the fashion. The artist presents a series of states enabling us to observe the development of his work up to the final proof, which is of such beauty that it effaces the reservations we may have had about the excremental form lying low on each plate. Like manure nourishing the colour in the blossoms (the conventions of horticulture are fully respected) it accompanies each stage of the progression and builds a definitive mass. And indeed it is a question of form and mass, obliterating direct reference to reality. It would seem that the subject is not flowers but technique. This technique, sustaining artificial flowers, is a tangle of roots whose hidden image invites a host of interpretations. Is there one among them that might be called definitive? It is as if the artist knew of some theory of prosody and declined to utter it - he paints, he engraves, before the onlooker: who will, I hope, find the key.
Marcel Broodthaers, 1974
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“A Little Bit of Roy Lichtenstein for….”, 1964
screenprint
58.4 x 80.4 cm
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“Reaper (a)”, 1977
etching on hand made paper
28 x 33.5 cm
Richard Hamilton / Victor Pasmore
“an Exhibit”, 1957
exhibition poster by Richard Hamilton, Institute of Contemporary Art, London
75 x 49 cm
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“People”, 1968
photograph, screenprint from 4 stencils, letratone, retouched by hand and sprayed, with collage
65 x 84 cm
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“Toaster”, 1967
offset lithograph in 4 colours, screenprinted from 4 stencils, with collaged metalized polyester
88.8 x 63.4 cm
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“Soft blue landscape”, 1979
collotype in 7 colours and screenprint from ca. 10 stencils in 40 colours on lvorex paper
72.5 x 91.8 cm
(framed: 73.2 x 92.5 x 3.8 cm)
“Soft pink landscape”, 1980
collotype in 7 colours and screenprint from ca. 10 stencils in 35 colours on lvorex paper
72.8 x 91.6 cm
(framed: 76.4 x 95.4 x 2.5 cm)
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“Soft blue landscape”, 1979
collotype in 7 colours and screenprint from ca. 10 stencils in 40 colours on lvorex paper
72.5 x 91.8 cm
Richard Hamilton
“Soft pink landscape”, 1980
collotype in 7 colours and screenprint from ca. 10 stencils in 35 colours on lvorex paper
72.8 x 91.6 cm
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“Flower-piece progressives”, 1973-1974
portfolio of 7 etching, copper engraving, scraper, aquatint, 6 trial proofs and the finished sheet, i.e., Trichromatic flower-piece, in portfolio, with text by Marcel Broodthaers
65.3 x 50.5 cm
detail
Richard Hamilton
“Flower-piece progressives”, 1973-1974
portfolio of 7 etching, copper engraving, scraper, aquatint, 6 trial proofs and the finished sheet, i.e., Trichromatic flower-piece, in portfolio, with text by Marcel Broodthaers
65.3 x 50.5 cm
detail
Richard Hamilton
“By the Waters of Miers”, 1972
12 stage proofs (I-XII), drypoint, aquatint and etching on German Museum paper
each 64.5 x 57 cm
(framed: 71.4 x 63.8 x 2.8 cm)
Richard Hamilton
“By the Waters of Miers”, 1972
stage proof I of 12 stage proofs (I-XII), drypoint, aquatint and etching on German Museum paper
each 64.5 x 57 cm
Richard Hamilton
“By the Waters of Miers”, 1972
final proof of 12 stage proofs (I-XII), drypoint, aquatint and etching on German Museum paper
each 64.5 x 57 cm
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“Flower Piece A”, 1974
collotype in four colours and screenprint from ca. 10 stencils in 36 printings on Schoeller Elfenbein-Karton paper
65 x 50 cm (framed: 68 x 52.5 x 2.5 cm)
“Flower-piece B”, 1975
lithograph in 3 colours and white, from 6 stones and 4 zinc plates on Arches paper
65.2 x 50.2 cm (framed: 68 x 53 x 2.5 cm)
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“Five Tyres Remoulded (portfolio)”, 1971
portfolio containing 1 sheet of text in 5 colour collotype (framed: 64.6 x 89.6 x 3.8 cm), 7 screenprints in black on mylar, superimposed on each other (framed: 61 x 85.9 x 3.8 cm), 1 relief cast in white silicone elastomer (framed: 64.6 x 89.6 x 3.8 cm)
Richard Hamilton
“Five Tyres Remoulded (portfolio)”, 1971
portfolio containing 1 sheet of text in 5 colour collotype (framed: 64.6 x 89.6 x 3.8 cm), 7 screenprints in black on mylar, superimposed on each other (framed: 61 x 85.9 x 3.8 cm), 1 relief cast in white silicone elastomer (framed: 64.6 x 89.6 x 3.8 cm)
detail
Richard Hamilton
“Five Tyres Remoulded (portfolio)”, 1971
portfolio containing 1 sheet of text in 5 colour collotype (framed: 64.6 x 89.6 x 3.8 cm), 7 screenprints in black on mylar, superimposed on each other (framed: 61 x 85.9 x 3.8 cm), 1 relief cast in white silicone elastomer (framed: 64.6 x 89.6 x 3.8 cm)
detail
Richard Hamilton
“Five Tyres Remoulded (portfolio)”, 1971
portfolio containing 1 sheet of text in 5 colour collotype (framed: 64.6 x 89.6 x 3.8 cm), 7 screenprints in black on mylar, superimposed on each other (framed: 61 x 85.9 x 3.8 cm), 1 relief cast in white silicone elastomer (framed: 64.6 x 89.6 x 3.8 cm)
detail
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2022
Richard Hamilton
“Self-portrait”, 1967
screenprint from 19 stencils on Schoellershammer paper
53.3 x 40.5 cm