Notts: Exhibition of work by Pop Art forefather Richard Hamilton to open at Lakeside Arts

Dubbed the forefather of Pop Art, the themes and concerns of Hamilton’s paintings and drawings were also pursued in his graphic works on which he collaborated with some of the greatest master printers of the 20th century.

The selection of 43 works on display represents the full range of his technical accomplishments from traditional engraving, etching and aquatint, to screen printing in the 1960s.

The exhibition ends with the newly emergent digital media embraced by the artist in his later years.

His use of imagery from popular culture is reflected in such early prints in the exhibition as Adonis in Y-Fronts from 1963, and the 1991 laser print Just What Is Is That Made Yesterday’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?

The original 1956 collage on which the latter work is based featured a muscle man surrounded by various consumer goods of the modern home and is one of the most iconic images of the Pop Art movement.

Equally famous was Hamilton’s series of prints titled Swingeing London.

They depict Mick Jagger hand-cuffed in a police car following his arrest for drugs possession in 1967.

Hamilton also designed The Beatles’ White Album and the exhibition includes a digital reinterpretation of a folded collage of the Fab Four that was originally sold within the record sleeve.

Made in 2007, it proved to be the artist’s last print.

Contemporary and political issues provide the subjects for other of Hamilton’s prints including a number of works concerning the troubles in Northern Ireland.

The Citizen, from 1985, makes reference to the ‘dirty protest’ by IRA prisoners in the Maze prison in the late 1970s.

Others depict a parading Orangeman and a patrolling British soldier.

The exhibition runs from 7th March to 31st May and entry is free.