Richard Hamilton - ACE021.3

Marilyn Monroe at Grauman’s, still and moving images of Monroe; her VO from River of No Return (1954). Collage, My Marilyn (1965), based on contact sheet marked up by Monroe; Hamilton’s VO commenting on the damage to the images. Collage of holiday-makers in the sea; film of people and pigeons in Trafalgar Square. Hamilton VO says he’s more concerned with literary ideas and pure conceptions than with paint for its own sake. Progress in mechanics of visual records giving a second-hand view of the world, and can make the images seem quite different to what they really are. Newsreel of Mick Jagger and others in Chichester at the time of his trial on drug charges. Footage of crowds of girls, policemen, prison van, etc.; newsreel commentary describes defendants’ clothes. Swingeing London ’67 series (1968 and later), processed and painted images based on still of Jagger and Robert Fraser shielding their eyes from camera flash bulbs. Newsreel continues. Coloured still of Bing Crosby from White Christmas (1954); negatives including image of Hamilton superimposed. Hamilton’s VO on his work I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas (1967) inspired by his first sight of a colour negative, the importance of the technical aspects of an artist’s way of thinking, and the different view the negative image gives of Crosby. Hamilton VO reading poem ("Mister Universe takes his place by Miss World…"). Credits.