“ There was a turning “And it was the same for me – when I wrote to the Smithsons
I wasn’t aware that I was doing anything of interest; they seemed pretty point in my life,
erudite concerns. And it was the same when I made the collage. It was
just a necessity. There was a deadline; I had to set aside time to do it
– and then I went and had lunch. And later I realised that magazines in 1956, where
wanted copies of it, and it went on to become one of the most
reproduced images of the twentieth century. I was surprised by this,
and surprised by the interest that developed in the letter.”I thought that art
Taking A Host of Angels as the occasion to contemplate
Hamilton’s achievements as an artist over the last 50 years, one can see
an almost overwhelming sense of cultural prophecy, in which the tenets doesn’t need
and tropes of contemporary art have been identified, investigated and
held with meticulous poise between high aesthetic poetry, subtle wit
and coolly clinical analysis. to come out of
Between the middle years of the 1950s and the present,
Hamilton has dealt in his work with what might be termed the cultural
physics of the modern age. Technology, mass media, sex, celebrity, looking at reality”
advertising, shock, glamour, fashion, pop, politics, the artist as brand
and the artist as multidisciplinary auteur – pretty much the entire
basis of contemporary artistic practice, in fact – are all major themes in
Hamilton’s art and writings.
“There was a turning point in my life, in 1956, where I thought that
art doesn’t need to come out of looking at reality. After 1956 I thought
“There is a famous passage in Milton about angels, in which the that all I needed for stimulation was second-hand: pictures in film and
angel Gabriel talks to Adam about the partner whom God is going to television magazines, newspapers… things that had been predigested
give him. Adam is trying to understand the role of this creature who and ‘two-dimensionalised’. But then I pulled it back into another world
is going to keep him company and so Gabriel has to touch upon the through my love of perspective, and so the three dimensions came
nature of sex. But when angels come together, he says, it is like two back.
vapours mingling – what I had been searching for was ‘the pure spirit’ “I became interested very early on in the fact that because
that he describes them possessing.” I use collage a lot and couldn’t manipulate the elements of the collage,
As A Host of Angels might be seen as a consolidation of however irrational these visual relationships were, that very fact created
Hamilton’s principal interests as an artist, including his enduring an excitement in the image that wouldn’t be there if it was too coherent.
fascination with interiors and perspective, so the paintings are a Everything comes out of that understanding, even the recognition,
reminder of his importance as an artist responding to the entire later, that this was the characteristic of Pop art. It wasn’t the subject
constitution of modernity. This was also brought to mind in January matter; it was the fact that it was second-hand imagery, not directly
this year, when a lunch party was held in Central London to celebrate derived from nature…”
the 50th anniversary of a letter written by Hamilton to the architectural In his most recent paintings, Hamilton is perhaps reviewing not
team Alison and Peter Smithson, now enshrined as the inaugural just an emotional strand of his life but also the trajectory of his technical
document of what would later become known as Pop art, in which he concerns. Within A Host of Angels – as detailed in the note ‘A Brief
uses and defines the term. History...’ that he has written to accompany them – one can see a
Accompanied by a collage made by Hamilton the previous layering of media from photography, computer printing and painting.
year, Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? Ultimately, however, Hamilton notes that, “the 100 percent resolution
(1956), this piece of correspondence – unanswered, in fact, at the of oil paint on canvas is still unmatched”. In this one might be reminded
time – was both the theoretical basis for Hamilton’s great painting of W.H. Auden’s memorable line (referring in his case to religious
of 1957, Hommage à Chrysler Corp., and the start of an approach to conversion, but no less applicable here): ‘We never left the place where
artmaking that would shape the subsequent course of Hamilton’s long we were born.’
and distinguished career. In a further autobiographical swerve in his “A title I had early on was The Late Works,” says Hamilton.
relationship with Duchamp, Hamilton now expresses surprise at the “In a funny way it’s a competitive thing. I dislike the late works of
importance that his letter to the Smithsons has been accorded. de Kooning, and I dislike the late works of Picasso – many of them.
“I once asked a similar question of Marcel Duchamp, when So I thought I’ll make some late works! Let ’em laugh! But I can’t imagine
I was interviewing him for the BBC’s Monitor programme. I came out I’ll be fortunate enough to have the possibility to make another group
with this statement, ‘You must have realised you were making a great of works like these. In some ways it doesn’t make any sense to make a
masterpiece?’ And he just said, ‘No. Why should I think that?’ And so group of paintings such as these in this day and age, with the fashions
the producer – who was an extremely interesting man – said that I had in art being as they are. But I am in the luxurious position of not having
to press Marcel on this. So I asked again, ‘You must have been aware to care what people think.”
that what you were doing was important?’ And he replied, ‘Why should
I think that it was of any importance? Lots of people work all their life on A Host of Angels is on show at the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa,
something completely absurd – why should I be any different?’ Venice, until 8 October
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