Richard Hamilton
Made the collage that defined Pop in 1956, and designed the Beatles' White Album.
Richard Hamilton was born in London in 1922, worked as a technical draughtsman, and was a founder of the Independent Group at the ICA, whose discussions of advertising, science fiction and consumer imagery produced the collage Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? in 1956 — usually taken as the first Pop artwork. He reconstructed Duchamp's Large Glass, taught at Newcastle, designed the Beatles' White Album with its numbered sleeve and poster, and made politically direct work about Northern Ireland and about Blair and the Iraq war. He died in 2011.
Hamilton was a technically obsessive printmaker who combined screenprint, etching, collotype and digital processes in single sheets, often revisiting an image over years in successive states. Identifying the exact version, state and edition is therefore the substance of any valuation, and Lullin's catalogue of the prints is the reference. Editions are typically small. The paintings and the unique mixed-media works are scarce. Original White Album sleeves with low numbers and complete inserts belong to a separate collecting market that overlaps this one.
If you own a work by Richard Hamilton
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.