Acquisitions
Featured Acquisitions and Gifts
ARTIST ROOMS: The d'Offay Donation
Richard Hamilton (born 1922)
One work: Four Self-Portraits 05.3.81, 1990, oil and Humbrol enamel on Cibachrome on canvas.
Richard Hamilton was not only a key figure in the development of Pop Art in Britain but also one of the movement’s pioneers internationally. His work, which draws from and comments on popular culture, technology, the mass media and a wide range of current events, continues to be highly influential worldwide. The work in The d’Offay Donation, Four Self-Portraits 05.3.81, exemplifies an ongoing preoccupation with portraiture, its conventions and possibilities as well as the use of darkroom printing and image-making techniques and media which he normally combines. Since 1968 Hamilton had engaged in a project to publish four volumes of Polaroid portraits of himself taken by artist friends and acquaintances. The idea of a composite self-portrait created over many years with the help of many other artists clearly intrigued him enormously. In 1980 and 1981 the artist took about 20 Polaroids of himself standing behind a sheet of clear glass. He then added thick acrylic colour to some of the photographs. The project was never completed but nearly ten years later Hamilton decided to make twelve of these into self-portraits by scanning and retouching them in his Quantel Paintbox. They were then scanned to make 10 x 8 transparencies. These were then further enlarged into Cibachrome prints which were then mounted on canvas. Hamilton is not only one of the first artists to use manipulated photography and to recognise its interactive potential, he is also one of the first artists to make his work with the aid of computers.
Four Self-Portraits 05.3.81 1990
Oil and Humbrol enamel on Cibachrome on canvas
Four parts, each: 750 x 750 mm
Photo courtesy Anthony d'Offay Ltd
© Richard Hamilton / DACS 2008
Artists
- Diane Arbus
- \
- Georg Baselitz
- \
- Joseph Beuys
- \
- Vija Celmins
- \
- Ellen Gallagher
- \
- Gilbert & George
- \
- Johan Grimonprez
- \
- Richard Hamilton
- \
- Ian Hamilton Finlay
- \
- Damien Hirst
- \
- Jenny Holzer
- \
- Alex Katz
- \
- Anselm Kiefer
- \
- Jeff Koons
- \
- Jannis Kounellis
- \
- Sol LeWitt
- \
- Richard Long
- \
- Robert Mapplethorpe
- \
- Agnes Martin
- \
- Mario Merz
- \
- Ron Mueck
- \
- Bruce Nauman
- \
- Charles Ray
- \
- Gerhard Richter
- \
- Ed Ruscha
- \
- Robert Ryman
- \
- Robert Therrien
- \
- Cy Twombly
- \
- Bill Viola
- \
- Andy Warhol
- \
- Lawrence Weiner
- \
- Francesca Woodman
