Richard Hambleton

Much of what has been written about Richard Hambleton has focused on the artist’s early ‘public art’. As a conceptual artist, Hambleton produced work using the urban canvas to evoke public reaction and was reputed to be an elusive genius. The original Pop Expressionist, Hambleton’s unforgettable images have permeated our collective consciousness for over three decades.

He has been called the godfather of street art. Together with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat; he was a member of a group who had great success coming out of the New York City art scene during the booming art market of the 1980s. Hambleton is most famous for his ‘Shadowman’ paintings of the early 1980s. Each painting resembles a life-sized silhouetted image of some mysterious person, a “splashy shadow figure”.

The ‘shadow paintings’ were splashed and brushed with black paint on hundreds of buildings and other structures across New York City. Locations were believed to be calculated for maximum impact upon unsuspecting pedestrians. Very often, a ‘Shadowman’ could be found in a dark alley or lurking just around a street corner. Hambleton later expanded the scope of his project and painted these ‘shadowmen’ in other cities, including Paris, London and Rome. In 1984 he painted 17 life-sized figures on the east side of the Berlin Wall, returning a year later to paint more figures on the west side.

Whilst graffiti had long been seen in public spaces, Hambleton was not engaged in random acts, but serious art installations that prompted the general public to observe and accept the fragility of being. The immediate impact of his work gave life to his form of popular expression: a social experiment that began in the early 1980s and would eventually become his ‘Shadowman’ series. In total, over 600 dark, ominous, shadowy figures were painted in seemingly random and unassuming corners, alleyways and side streets. In his own words, ‘I painted the town black’.

During his career, Hambleton’s works were shown internationally in world-class galleries and museums, including his “shadow” paintings on canvas and paper. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum (The Mauermuseum – Mauer Haus am Checkpoint Charlie) and The Zellermayer Galerie in Berlin, The Andy Warhol Museum, Austin Museum of Art (now called the Contemporary Austin), Milwaukee Art Museum, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum, The Queens Museum, and Harvard University. Hambleton’s work was featured in ArtForum Art in America, The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Architectural Digest and LIFE magazine, and he was twice chosen to exhibit at the Venice Biennale (in 1984 and 1988).

New York Times art critic Michael Brenson, when commenting on Hambleton’s exceptional skill at handling paint, wrote: ‘When he throws white or black on the canvas, his waves break, his rodeo rider bucks, a man shot seems blown apart.’

In October 2009, Papermag wrote of Hambleton: ‘Memo to Banksy: You owe Richard Hambleton a small fortune in royalties. You too, KAWS. Hambleton’s early ‘80’s onsite works-dynamic, painted ‘shadowmen’ on street corners and in alleyways - are clear precursors of the early ‘00’s graffiti-art boom, and Hambleton himself, a contemporary of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of its unsung godfathers.’