Lithograph and screenprint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/richard-hamilton-1244" aria-label="More by Richard Hamilton" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Richard Hamilton</a>
Interior with monochromes
Purchased 1981
abstraction
architecture
chair
colour
couch
domestic
door
emotions, concepts and ideas
features
fine art and design, named works
fine arts and music
formal qualities
fragmentation
furnishings
heating and lighting
interior - non-specific
interiors
Klein, Yves, painting
ladder
lightbulb
non-representational
objects
photographic
picture
tools and machinery
<p><i>Interior with monochromes </i>is a print made from a collage, showing a deconstructed view of an interior. On a sheet of white paper, Hamilton lined up three black and white photographs of sections of different rooms so that the line where the wall meets the ceiling is continuous from one crop to the next. The photographs take the spectator’s eye from floor to ceiling in three shots. These are: a view of a sofa, including a section of floor, in front of a wall, with only a tiny segment of ceiling included; part of an open door, seen above a sliver of floor and below a lightbulb hanging from a black electric cord; a closer view of the naked bulb hanging from a white cord in front of the intersection of two walls and the ceiling. The visual journey upwards is emphasised by the presence of a wooden ladder casually propped against the wall in the first photograph. In front of this image Hamilton collaged a coloured picture of Gerrit Rietveld’s <i>Rood Blauwe Stoel </i>(Red/Blue Chair) of 1918. The artist cut this out from a set of postcards that he also used to make his subsequent print, <i>Putting on de Stijl</i>, 1979. The same chair appears in his print <i>Instant Painting</i>, 1980. On the coffee table in the photograph behind the red chair a bottle of Beefeater Gin and two bottles of Schweppes tonic make reference to a ritual personal to the artist. According to Etienne Lullin, the author of Hamilton’s catalogue raisonné: ‘Gin and tonic is Richard Hamilton’s favourite drink ... In addition, gin and tonic was also part of the almost ritual handing over of the print’s proof: after the whole edition had been printed and signed, Hamilton would mix gin and tonics, light up a cigar and then ceremoniously hand over the printer’s proof(s).’ (Quoted in Lullin, p.150.)</p>
paper print lithograph screenprint
1 July 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
4 August 2003 – 26 October 2003
2003-10-26
2003-08-04
Instituto Tomie Ohtake (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
16 October 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
2003-10-16
Paco Imperial (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
2003-07-01
A Bigger Splash: British Art from Tate 1960-2003
Tate partnerships & programmes
2 June 2011 – 15 February 2012
2012-02-15
2 June 2011 – 15 February 2012
2012-02-15
2011-06-02
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2011-06-02
Richard Hamilton Interiors
Collection based display
Interior with monochromes
image: 498 × 698 mm
Purchased 1981
<p><i>Interior with monochromes </i>is a print made from a collage, showing a deconstructed view of an interior. On a sheet of white paper, Hamilton lined up three black and white photographs of sections of different rooms so that the line where the wall meets the ceiling is continuous from one crop to the next. The photographs take the spectator’s eye from floor to ceiling in three shots. These are: a view of a sofa, including a section of floor, in front of a wall, with only a tiny segment of ceiling included; part of an open door, seen above a sliver of floor and below a lightbulb hanging from a black electric cord; a closer view of the naked bulb hanging from a white cord in front of the intersection of two walls and the ceiling. The visual journey upwards is emphasised by the presence of a wooden ladder casually propped against the wall in the first photograph. In front of this image Hamilton collaged a coloured picture of Gerrit Rietveld’s <i>Rood Blauwe Stoel </i>(Red/Blue Chair) of 1918. The artist cut this out from a set of postcards that he also used to make his subsequent print, <i>Putting on de Stijl</i>, 1979. The same chair appears in his print <i>Instant Painting</i>, 1980. On the coffee table in the photograph behind the red chair a bottle of Beefeater Gin and two bottles of Schweppes tonic make reference to a ritual personal to the artist. According to Etienne Lullin, the author of Hamilton’s catalogue raisonné: ‘Gin and tonic is Richard Hamilton’s favourite drink ... In addition, gin and tonic was also part of the almost ritual handing over of the print’s proof: after the whole edition had been printed and signed, Hamilton would mix gin and tonics, light up a cigar and then ceremoniously hand over the printer’s proof(s).’ (Quoted in Lullin, p.150.) 
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<br/>Behind the sofa, an editioned painting by Joseph Beuys (1921-86) hangs on the wall. It is <i>Lampe Loch rot </i>(1976-9), a composition of three back discs in a vertical line decreasing in size as the eye travels downwards. These are offset by a black ellipse screenprinted onto the wall in the third photograph on a line nearly horizontal with the upper edge of Beuys’s print. A fourth photograph, of an area of grey textured wall, underlays part of the second and third image, beginning at the edge of the door lintel cropped by the lower edge of the second photograph and ending at the intersection of two walls shown in the third photograph. Hamilton drew the lower part of the door onto his collage, filling in an area of darkness under the black rectangle of the space onto which the door opens. A square of vivid blue overlapping the third and fourth photographs alludes to the artist Yves Klein (1928-62). A square of similar dimensions, rotated sideways and coloured orange, is set between the lower corners of the third and fourth photographs, balancing the composition. 
<br/>
<br/>Collaged depictions of interiors are a recurring theme in Hamilton’s oeuvre, begun in 1956 with his most famous image, <i>Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?</i>(Kunsthalle Tübingen and Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-just-what-was-it-that-made-yesterdays-homes-so-different-so-appealing-upgrade-p20271" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P20271</span></a>), and continued through the 1960s (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-interior-ii-t00912" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T00912</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-interior-p04250" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P04250</span></a>) to the present (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-chiara-chair-p78919" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P78919</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-the-annunciation-p20287" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P20287</span></a>). In the late 1970s, he produced almost exclusively interiors. He has commented:
<br/></p>
<blockquote>In bringing together works that could reasonably be labelled ‘Interior’ I found that art was as often the subject as that they were about rooms. I happened to use part of a colour supplement feature for <i>Interior I</i> ... Its complement <i>Interior II</i> also contains references to art, including a patch of blue to signify an Yves Klein monochrome, a trick which recurs in <i>Interior with monochromes</i> ... Any interior is a set of anachronisms, a museum, with the lingering residues of decorative styles that an inhabited space collects. Banal or beautiful, exquisite or sordid, each says a lot about its owner and something about humanity in general. They can be dreary or warm and touching, on occasion, inspiring; all tell a story and the narrative can be enthralling; some even give us a little lesson in art appreciation.</blockquote>
<blockquote>(Quoted in <i>Collected Words</i>, p.62.)</blockquote>
<p>
<br/>While Hamilton’s earlier collages were created using material sourced from magazines and postcards, during the 1970s the artist developed the habit of photographing fragments of interiors without any specific purpose in mind. Some of these, like the photographs used in this print, found their way into studies. Later, as in such images as <i>A mirrorical return</i>, 1999 (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-a-mirrorical-return-p78289" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P78289</span></a>) and <i>The annunciation</i>, 2005 (<span>P20287</span>), Hamilton took photographs of interiors specifically for the creation of paintings and digital collage.
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<br/><i>Interior with monochromes </i>was printed by the artist and Heinz Häfner at Eberhard Schreiber, Stuttgart using collotype in six colours on Ivorex paper. It was subsequently screenprinted by the artist and Frank Kicherer, Stuttgart in five colours. The edition numbers ninety-six plus ten artist’s proofs; Tate’s copy is the fourteenth in the edition. Hamilton signed and numbered each copy in pencil. The edition was published by Waddington Graphics, London.
<br/>
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<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Etienne Lullin, <i>Richard Hamilton: Prints and Multiples 1939-2002</i>, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Winterthur and Yale Center for British Art, New Haven 2003, pp.150-1, reproduced p.151 in colour.
<br/><i>Richard Hamilton: Prints 1939-83</i>, Stuttgart and London 1984, p.75, reproduced p.75 in colour.
<br/><i>Richard Hamilton: Collected Words 1953-1982</i>, London and New York, 1982, pp.61-3.
<br/>
<br/>Elizabeth Manchester
<br/>September 2007</p>

Summary
2008-07-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p><b>P07446</b> INTERIOR WITH MONOCHROMES 1979
<br/>
<br/><i>Inscribed ‘R Hamilton’ bottom right and</i> ‘14/96’
<br/>Collotype and screenprint. Collotype printing by Schreiber and screenprinting by Frank Kicherer, both in Stuttgart, published by Waddington Graphics, 19 5/8× 27 1/2 (49.8×69.8)
<br/>Purchased from Waddington Graphics (Grant-in-Aid) 1981
<br/>
<br/>This is one of a group of works made in 1979 in which Hamilton used his own <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a>, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/collage" title="Glossary definition for 'Collage'"><span>collaged</span></a> and rendered in collotype, with painted additions rendered in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/screenprint" title="Glossary definition for 'Screenprint'"><span>screenprinting</span></a>. In several of them, as particularly in this one, the subject is art in a domestic setting. The blue square represents an Yves Klein <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/monochrome" title="Glossary definition for 'Monochrome'"><span>monochrome</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> (see, for example, ‘IKB 79’ 1959 <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/klein-ikb-79-t01513" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T01513</span></a>).
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<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-11T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction architecture chair colour couch domestic door emotions, concepts and ideas features fine art and design, named works fine arts and music formal qualities fragmentation furnishings heating and lighting interior - non-specific interiors Klein, Yves, painting ladder lightbulb non-representational objects photographic picture tools and machinery