13th March 2014
Press Release
+44 (0)20 7968 4180
| Caroline Newton | [email protected]
A Pop Art Fashion Statement
Artist Richard Hamilton’s ‘Fashion Plate’
As the retrospective exhibition of the Father of Pop Art, Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) is enjoyed and
explored at Tate Modern, Fashion Plate, one of the highlights of his 1970 retrospective at the Tate, will
be offered in a sale of Modern & Contemporary Prints at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions in London on
Thursday 27th March 2014.
Fashion Plate is the edition which came from the series of 12
unique works entitled ‘Cosmetic Studies.’ Created in 1969-70
they were indicative of Hamilton’s penchant for using highly
recognisable images from different art forms, and redefining
them in a new context.
After World War II the pop art movement celebrated fashion
and popular culture. Clothing and fashions which had played a
supporting role in art history were now the primary focus for
artists like Hamilton, who famously defined ‘Pop’ as: “popular,
transient, expendably, low cost, mass produced, young, witty,
sexy, gimmicky, glamorous and big business.”
Fashion Plate uses photographs of actress Sophia Loren taken
from a fashion magazine, with a screenprint overlay. In
collaboration with photographer Tony Evans, Hamilton shot studio equipment used for fashion
photography to act as a frame for his reformed portrait, and to emphasise the fashion and pop art imagery.
The striking lithograph was created in Milan, and then retouched by Hamilton in London using actual
cosmetics.
13th March 2014
Press Release
Unlike his Pop Art contemporaries who obsessed over branding and advertising, works like this express how
Hamilton used the materials that form our commercial world to create fine art. He once said; "The artist's
job has always been to select and reassemble elements from a chancing, chaotic, experience of the world.
In creating order, coherence and stability from the flux of experience the artist produces an icon - an
epiphany. He has to grab, to formalize, some instant of enlightenment." The print is estimated to sell for
£10,000-15,000. [Lot 403]
Elsewhere in the sale a still proof from the
collaborative work, Stillness at the Speed of light, by
pop and fashion icon Grace Jones and groundbreaking light artist, Chris Levine (b.1972).
Introduced by milliner and designer, Philip Treacy,
the proof is one of a number of 3D portraits created
by the pair for their 2010 exhibition at The Vinyl
Factory, London.
Levine, who is most famous for his 2012 portrait of
the Queen entitled, Lightness of Being, spoke about
Grace Jones at the time of the exhibition: “She is so
much more than a singer, more a performance artist – a one-off superstar…like me, she is always reaching
out into new sensory territories and combined we have a good chemistry.” The print is estimated to sell for
£500-700. [Lot 444]
The auction will be held at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions saleroom in London’s Mayfair, with public
viewing from Sunday 23rd – Thursday 27th March. Online bidding with no additional premium will be
available via www.bloomsburyauctions.com.
~Ends~
Catalogue
The full catalogue for this auction is available online.
Click here to view a fully illustrated online catalogue.
Press Release
13th March 2014
Click here to view a pdf of the sale catalogue.
Notes
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions are a UK 'top 5’ auctioneer of fine art and collectibles. As part of The Stanley
Gibbons Group plc we are the only UK stock-exchange listed firm of auctioneers and occupy the same stable as coin
specialists Baldwin’s, and Fraser’s Autographs. Established in 1759, we have the broadest and most regular calendar of
specialist catalogued sales in the industry, numbering over 150 per annum, and provide vendors and buyers alike
access to market-leading specialist advice in any number of collecting fields. We operate from salerooms in
Donnington Priory (near Newbury), London’s Mayfair, Bristol and Godalming.
Established in 1856, The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is the world’s leading rare stamp and prestige collectibles
merchant with offices in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Channel Islands.
Holders of the Royal Warrant as philatelists since 1914 and AIM-listed in London, the Group is debt-free and has
shown consistent double-digit EBIT growth through the recent economic downturn in the UK and Europe.