Richard HAMILTON
1922, England

Richard Hamilton

The following chronology does not claim to be exhaustive. The following books in particular were consulted in its preparation: Richard Hamilton, Collected Words, 1953-1982, Thames and Hudson, London, 1982; Richard Hamilton and Dieter Roth, Collaborations of Ch. Rotham, Hansjörg Mayer and Cadaqués Gallery, Stuttgart/Cadaqués,1977; Richard Hamilton, Tate Gallery, London, 1972; and Richard Hamilton, Drukgraphik und Multiples 1939-2002, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, 2002.

1922
Richard Hamilton is born on 24 February at Bendall Street, Marylebone, in London.

1929
His parents move to Victoria. Richard attends St. Peter’s School in Eaton Square, London.

1934
Attends evening classes in painting at the LCC Centre in Pimlico and Southwark, London.

1936
Attends evening classes at Westminster School of Art as well as other classes at St Martin’s School of Art, London.

1937
Works in the exhibition department of the Reimann School of Art in London. Is given permission to attend drawing classes in his spare time.

1938
Attends painting classes at the Royal Academy Schools and learns engraving and lithography techniques in evening classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, in London.

1939
Spends his summer holidays in France. Returns to London before Chamberlain declares war.

1940
Attends a training centre for nine months where he learns technical drawing.

1941
Works as a designer of jigs and tools at the Design Unit Group, as well as at EMI – Electrical & Musical Industries, London. Rents an attic in Newman Street, Soho.

1942
Moves to Paddington. Sets up a club at EMI and organises lunch-time concerts based on recordings from the HMV archives.

1943
Works in his spare time with sound engineers on the design of record-players and speakers.

1944
Becomes interested in printing techniques, having been stimulated by the exhibition of French artists’ books in the foyer of the National Gallery in London.

1945
Is impressed by the Matisse and Picasso exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

1946
Applies to leave his wartime occupation work and finally and obtains permission from a Hardship Tribunal to return to the Royal Academy Schools. Is expelled for \"failing to profit from the teaching\" being given. Is therefore called up and forced to do national service in the Royal Engineers for 18 months.
Reads the classics of English Literature (from Chaucer to Hardy) in his regiment’s library, as well as his two volume paperback edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

1947
Begins some sketches for the illustration of Ulysses. Marries Terry O’Reilly.

1948
Studies painting at the Slade School of Art. Works essentially on live model painting. Nigel Henderson, a fellow student, introduces him to Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull. Henderson also introduces him to a great book on morphology entitled Growth and Form by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, and shows him Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte Verte and introducing him to Roland Penrose, who would later support Richard’s idea of organising an exhibition on the theme of Growth and Form, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, in London.

1949
Siegfried Giedion’s book entitled Mechanization Takes Command becomes a major reference work for the artist. The artistic director of Vogue magazine invites him to use sessions provided by Vogue to enable young artists to draw from fashion models,
Makes models for industrial and government exhibitions.
His daughter Dominy is born.

1950
Visits Paolozzi in Paris, who takes him to Giacometti’s studio.
Meets Benn Levy and his wife Constance Cummings, forming a close friendship with them. Designs the layout of the catalogue, as well as the poster for the exhibition James Joyce: His Life and Work, and helps to install the show at the ICA.
Exhibits a series of etchings entitled Variations on the Theme of Reaper, at Gimpel Fils. Collects material for the Growth and Form exhibition.

1951
Works on the Growth and Form exhibition, the ICA’s contribution to the Festival of Britain. It was opened by Le Corbusier at the ICA gallery in London.

1952
Teaches at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London.
Is a founder member of the Independent Group at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

1953
Is appointed lecturer at Kings’ College, Durham University (later the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne).

1954
Organises and installs art exhibitions in the Hatton Gallery, an exhibition space in the art department of the university.

1955
Exhibits Paintings 1951-55, at the Hanover Gallery, London.
Conceives and designs the exhibition Man, Machine and Motion, at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
Works as a design consultant for Granada Television. His son Roderic is born.

1956
Participates in This is Tomorrow at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. Talks about Marcel Duchamp’s Grand Verre at the ICA, using a diagram that he made of the glass and its relation with the Boîte Verte notes. He writes to Marcel Duchamp enclosing a copy of the diagram, requesting his correction or confirmation thereof.

1957
Receives a letter from Marcel Duchamp, a reply to the letter sent the year before, inviting him to collaborate with George Heard Hamilton, a lecturer in Art History at Yale University, on preparing an English version of the Boîte Verte notes.
Lectures in Interior Design at the Royal College of Art, in London.

1958
Exchanges regular correspondence with Duchamp about theBoîte Verte project.

1959
Meets Marcel and Teeny Duchamp for the first time at a dinner party organised by William and Noma Copley, at Longpont, near Paris.

1960
Awarded the William and Noma Copley Foundation Prize for Painting.
Publishes the typographic version of Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte Verte.
Exchanges correspondence with Dieter Roth after installing the Edition MAT exhibition in Newcastle.

1961
Writes a letter to Dieter Roth in which he expresses interest in the latter’s work: “( ...) The few examples of your work that I am familiar with have interested me very much. ( …)\".
He also tells him of his wish to publish an article on Roth’s books in the Typographica magazine: \"What I would like to do is write a short appreciation and reproduce some selected examples of your typographic work.\"
Begins work as an editor of monographs at the William and Noma Copley Foundation (until 1965).

1962
First exhibition of Pop paintings, including works by the following artists, amongst others: Hockney, Kitaj and Peter Blake.
Meets Emmett Williams, Robert Filliou and Ben Vautier for the first time, as well as other members of the Fluxus group during the Festival of Misfits exhibition, at Gallery One and the ICA, in London.
Collaborates with Dieter Roth – by post – as editor of the latter’s book for the Copley Foundation. Exchanges correspondence with Diter Rot about proposals for the publication of the Copley Book. On this subject, Richard wrote as follows: “It is a long time since I received your marvellous Copley book proposals. The reason that I haven’t written before is that I wished to be able to let you know how we can proceed from here. (…) First let me say that I find your proposals incredibly stimulating and exciting – the letter itself is an important document simply as an exposition of one of the most creative projects I’ve ever come across.\"
His wife Terry dies in a car accident.

1962
Teeny and Marcel Duchamp invite him to visit them in Cadaqués, Spain.
Makes his first trip to the United States to see the Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Pasadena Museum, in California.
Lectures on the Grand Verre at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, at Yale University, and also at Pasadena and Boston.
Begins the series entitled Five Tyres, based on a complex problem of perspective.
Writes the Urbane Image text of which Dieter Roth later makes a phonetic translation into German in 1970.

1963
Travels with Teeny and Marcel Duchamp from New York to California. Meets Warhol and Oldenburg and the young Los Angeles artists connected with the Ferrus Gallery.

1964
Meets Dieter Roth for the first time.
Organises, with Ronald Hunt, the first Picabia retrospective at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle. Is invited by the Arts Council of Great Britain to organise a Marcel Duchamp retrospective.

1965
Begins his reconstruction of Marcel Duchamp’s Grand Verre, by working from the notes Duchamp made between 1912 and 1915.
Dieter Roth’s Copley Book is published, edited by Richard Hamilton for the William and Noma Copley Foundation.

1966
Completes his reconstruction of the Grand Verre and presents it together with the studies at the Hatton Gallery, in London.
Installs the exhibition entitled The Almost Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp at the Tate Gallery, in London. Abandons full-time teaching to dedicate himself to his professsion as an artist, having had Adrian Henri, Ian Stephenson, Noel Forster, Rita Donagh and Bryan Ferry as his students, amongst others.

1967
First solo exhibitions in Germany, New York and Italy.

1968
Begins the series of Polaroid Portraits, after being photographed by Roy Lichtenstein. Exhibits at Documenta 4 in Kassel and meets the artist Marcel Broodthaers.
Makes his first collaboration with Dieter Roth on a series of works entitled People/Popel.

1969
Buys a ruin in Cadaqués and begins restoring it.
Works in collaboration with Dieter Roth on a series of works entitled Bathers.

1970
First retrospective held of his work at the Tate Gallery, in London.

1971
Returns to the Five Tyres theme, this time using a computer programme to solve the problems of perspective. Collaborates with Dieter Roth on the production of graphic works, namely a series of etchings entitled Seminar. Dedicates a graphic work to Dieter Roth entitled Eine Kleine Scheisse für Dieter.
Is invited by Barbara Rose to take part in the symposium on Marcel Duchamp at the University of California.

1972
Makes a print for Release, an association which gives legal aid to people accused of breaking the laws governing drug taking.
Collaborates with Dieter Roth once again on the series of works entitled: A Strong smell of Incense.

1973
Begins the series entitled Trichromatic Flower-piece, with Aldo Crommelynck. Retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

1974
First visit to Japan to talk with the executives of the Lux Corporation about a project design a hi-fi systems to mark the 50th anniversary of the company.

1976
Inauguration of the exhibition entitled Collaborations of Ch. Rotham with Dieter Roth at the Cadaqués Gallery. Each work is the result of the collaboration between the two artists, and each of them is accompanied by a certificate. Also makes two recordings entitled Canciones de Cadaques, the first one with Dieter Roth; the second, which is the certificate of the first one, was recorded with the dog Chispas Luis.
Richard Hamilton also writes a story and a play with Dieter Roth based on the titles of the Collaborations: In a little Hotel by the Deserted Sea – A Landscape and Die grosse Bockwurst.
On the subject of his collaboration with Dieter Roth, the artist was later to say in an interview: \"Well working with somebody else is a competitive situation, it’s bound to be, you don’t want to be swamped by the other personality, you have to fight back all the time. (…) I can do it with Dieter because I have such admiration, for a person who is more stupid I couldn’t… I wouldn’t wish to be provoked in that kind of way, I would become impatient with it, but with Dieter it’s always an understanding and respect for what he has done to provoke me, that enables me to continue it.\" Also collaborates with Dieter Roth on the work entitled Fast Colours and on the certificate for this work entitled Palette.

1977
Begins the series of self-portraits entitled Interfaces with Dieter Roth, presented for the first time at the Carl Solway Gallery, New York. Richard Hamilton wrote as follows about Interfaces: \"It was then that Dieter had another of his brilliant schemes, he conceived that we might make Polaroids of each other looking as much like paintings as possible (…) I thought that we could do better than Polaroids and suggested serious studio photographs with a Hasselblad camera. (…) Our small paintings were the inspiration for photographic portraits instead of the more normal procedure, that of using photographs as source material for paintings. (…) The 60 photographs, also A4 size, were exhibited together with the paintings in box frames in New York.\"
The Interfaces exhibition was also shown at the Waddington and Tooth Galleries in London and later at the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, Manchester.
At the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, the Hague, he makes a reading of the written texts for the Collaborations project with Dieter Roth.
Presentation of the play written by Hamilton-Roth at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the performance was recorded by Audio Arts in London.

1978
Moves to Oxfordshire.
Selects works from the National Gallery collection in order to make a new installation of the collection. Writes the text entitled \"The little world of Dieter Roth\".
The Interfaces exhibition is shown at its place of origin, in Cadaqués. These works are also shown at the Maeght Gallery, in Barcelona.

1980
For the first time, he uses the large format of the Polaroid camera to make the series of works entitled Instant Painting.
Makes The Critic Laughs advertisement for the BBC series Shock of the New.

1981
First self-portraits with the Polaroid camera made through a pane of painted glass.

1982
Publication of the book Collected Words, in which he edits all his texts.

1984
Invited to design the OHIO computer for the Swedish firm Isotron.

1987
Takes part in a series of films made for the BBC, entitled Painting with Light, in which six artists are invited to experiment with the Quantel TV Paintbox.

1988
Publication of an artist’s book with Dieter Roth, entitled Intercases. This luxury edition follows the expository principle of the works of the Interfaces exhibition.

1989
The Swedish company Diab Data developes the computer Ohio and presents it at the Moderna Museet, in Stockholm.

1991
Marries Rita Donagh.

1992
Retrospective at the Tate Gallery, in London, and the Irish Museum in Dublin.

1993
Represents the United Kingdom at the Venice Biennial.

1994
Exhibits at the Cadaqués Gallery with Rita Donagh.

1995
Exhibits Seven Rooms, at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, in London.
Richard Hamilton makes a portrait of Dieter Roth from two photographs made in 1977-78 for Interfaces, which he changes by computer. From this image, he makes a Cibachrome print on canvas and paints it with oil and enamel paint; the title of this work is simply Dieter Roth.

1996
Exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, entitled Site–referential paintings.
Amongst other exhibitions, inaugurates the show entitled Work in Progress at the Galerie Bein Steinernen Kreuz in Bremen.

1997
Exhibits at Documenta X, in Kassel, Seven Rooms and Typosophic Pavillion.

1998
Exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Bremen, entitled Subject to an impression. Inaugurates the New Technology and Printmaking exhibition at the Alan Cristea Gallery, in London. Dieter Roth dies.
Writes the text Food for Thought after Dieter Roth’s death. Hamilton begins work again on the Dieter Roth portrait, altering the image with the aid of a computer and printing the digital proof, giving this the title of Portrait of Dieter Roth.

1999
The New Technology and Printmaking exhibition is presented at the Galerie Barbara Thumm in Berlin, at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna, at the Nishimaura Gallery in Tokyo and the Marconi Studio in Milan. Also takes part in the group exhibition entitled Circa 1968, at the Museu de Serralves, Porto.

2000
Vier Räume exhibition at the Museum Fridericianum, in Kassel.
Also takes part in the group exhibition entitled Encounters, at the National Gallery, in London

2001
What about Ljubiljana? Inaugurates the Imaging Ulysses exhibition, at the Kunsthalle in Tübingen. Exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham entitled Polaroid Portraits.
Also takes part in the group exhibition entitled Les Années Pop, at the Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris.

2002
Inaugurates the Imaging Ulysses exhibition at the British Museum in London and later at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, in Dublin.
Exhibition entitled Polaroid Portraits at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York. Also inaugurates the exhibition entitled Richard Hamilton Drückgraphic und Multiples 1939-2002, at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur.
Exhibition entitled Richard Hamilton/Dieter Roth: Collaborations, Relations, Confrontations, opens at the Museu de Serralves, Porto.

Source: http://www.infoloop.org/