Richard Hamilton.

Richard Hamilton

Hamilton was born in the Pimlico, London. Despite having left school with no formal qualifications, he managed to gain employment as an apprentice working at an electrical components firm, where he discovered ability for draughtsman ship and began to do painting at evening classes at St Martin's School of Art. This led to his entry into the Royal Academy Schools.

After spending the war working as a technical draftsman, he re-enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools but was later expelled on grounds of "not profiting from the instruction", loss of his student status forcing Hamilton to carry out National Service. After two years at the Slade School of Art, University College, London, Hamilton began exhibiting his work at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) where he also produced posters and leaflets and teaching at the Central School of Art and Design.

He was often described as the founder of pop art; this was because, although he was the creator of iconic “Pop” images, and was the first artist to use the word in a painting, Hamilton exhibited a versatility which resisted easy definition.

“My ambition was to be multi-allusive,” he once observed. “I wanted to get all of living into my work.” He articulated this inclusiveness in a famous letter he wrote in 1957, to the architects Peter and Alison Smithson that became not only the definitive description of Pop Art, but also a charter for contemporary culture.

Hamilton had always been politically engaged, vociferously supporting the CND. In the 1980s he began a “Northern Ireland” trilogy: The Citizen (1981-83) depicted a “dirty protest” prisoner in the Maze; The Subject (1988-89), a self-righteous Orangeman; and the State (1993), a British soldier on patrol. Inevitably such politicized subject matter attracted criticism, though many considered the works merely naive oversimplifications. (Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk)I like his style because it is unique to me as an individual.