Engraving 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>
Stilllife
Purchased 1982
abstraction
bottle
cubist space
emotions, concepts and ideas
fine arts and music
formal qualities
fragmentation
from recognisable sources
man-made
movement
objects
painting materials
product packaging
reading, writing, printed matter
space
vessels and containers
paper print engraving
1 December 2011 – 4 March 2012
2012-03-04
1 December 2011 – 4 March 2012
2012-03-04
2011-12-01
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Middlesbrough, UK)
http://www.visitmima.com/
2011-12-01
Between Dimensions: the representation of the object
Loan-out
Still-life?
image: 245 × 175 mm
Purchased 1982
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-still-life-p07658" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07658</span></a> <b>Still Life?</b> 1955</p>
<p>
<br/>Engraving 9 5/8 × 6 7/8 (245 × 175) on paper 15 3/4 × 11 5/8 (400 × 295), printed by the artist at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, not editioned</p>
<p>Inscribed ‘R Hamilton’ b.r. and ‘proof’; inscribed in the plate ‘RH 55’
<br/>Purchased from the artist (Grant-in-Aid) 1982</p>
<p><i>Lit</i>: Hamilton no.48, repr. p.38
<br/>
<br/>Besides the works related to ‘Growth &amp; <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>Form</span></a>’ Hamilton had, between 1950 and 1953, made <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>paintings</span></a> in which a multiple viewpoint was used as a kind of <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/conceptual-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Conceptual art'"><span>conceptual</span></a> framework closely related to the traditional convention of drawn <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/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a>. In these, natural forms were depicted in space. Morphet writes:
<br/></p>
<p>‘The perspective paintings had populated Hamilton's conceptual pictorial world with forms of life, had examined the question of spectator movement, and had commented on the painter's own role in making a two-dimensional analogy for three-dimensional facts. In several works of 1954–5 [including ‘<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/still-life" title="Glossary definition for 'Still life'"><span>Still Life</span></a>?’], Hamilton brought his growing need for pictorial expression... to bear on all these problems simultaneously. These works... executed from life, mark Hamilton's return to <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/figurative-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Figurative'"><span>figurative</span></a> art at a moment when <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstract</span></a> painting in Britain was growing exceptionally in both scope and reputation (Morphet, pp.23–4).</p>
<p>
<br/>‘Still Life?’ was the last of this group and the one in which Hamilton's interest in Futurist imagery is perhaps most evident.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1986
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction bottle cubist space emotions, concepts and ideas fine arts and music formal qualities fragmentation from recognisable sources man-made movement objects painting materials product packaging reading, writing, printed matter space vessels and containers