Richard Hamilton: Modern Moral Matters

Richard Hamilton's political and protest works are the focus of his exhibition: Richard Hamilton: Modern Moral Matters at the Serpentine Gallery, London. This is the first exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of the Serpentine Gallery and the first major presentation of Hamilton’s work in London since 1992.

Often referred to as the 'father of Pop art', Hamilton engages with mass media through a series of paintings, installations and prints (some especially created for this exhibition, like Unorthodox Rendition, 2010) that take politics, riots, war and terrorist acts as his subject matter.

Swinging London (1967-73), a series of works based on the arrest of Mick Jagger and Hamilton's gallerist Robert Fraser for drug possession, is on display, together with others that show how portraiture is of particular interest to the artist. 

These pictures, which include Tony Blair as a middle-aged maverick cowboy in Shock and Awe (2007-8), as well as televised speeches of Margaret Thatcher in Treatment Room (1983), can be read as reflections on a celebrity-obsessed media and critical comments on the governing powers at the time. 

This exhibition details Hamilton’s exploration of the media's desire for images and raises questions about the authenticity of the image, often pairing the real with the simulated, which makes for a provoking interrogation of the representations that surround us.