portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

RICHARD HAMILTON

GROWTH & FORM

Yes more art! Visitors paying attention (who ARE you talking to? - ED) will be aware I did my thesis for my art degree and for composer Gavin Bryars and historian Fred Orton then at Leicester on Richard Hamilton. One of the earliest projects around exhibition design Richard was involved in was called 'Growth and Form' and is somewhat over shadowed by the later 'This is Tomorrow' which grew to legendary proportions
Hunting around t'interweb thingamabob I found this:





Growth and Form, Exhibition Catalogue, 1951. Exhibition produced by Richard Hamilton at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, 1951
/ «Growth and Form […] consisted of a large-scale installation – reconstructed in 2014 at Tate Modern, London, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid – that was inspired by the book of Scottish mathematician and biologist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, On Growth and Form (1917). Hamilton brought together a range of scientific and organic materials, using the most innovative and imaginative technologies of the moment. One of the effects of this exhibition was, as Hamilton wrote, the influence it may have upon design trends’. […] This exhibition, inspired by the sensitivity and strategies of Surrealism and Dada, Joyce’s literary techniques and Duchamp, helped Hamilton develop his own exhibition language. His visual references were also determined by the discovery of György Kepes, László Moholy-Nagy and Sigfried Giedion. These readings favoured revitalising the social function of art and bringing together artistic and scientific experimentation, at a time when technology was developing a new visual order. Hamilton saw a clear need for an exhibition practice based on the principles of visualisation and the ability to incorporate contemporary technology. To all these ideas we should add his technical training in design. [continue…] – Growth and Form, MACBA Collection, Barcelona / 


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