Interior 1964

Richard Hamilton made this print, Interior, with collage and screen printing, layering images to create a space that feels both familiar and strange. I imagine Hamilton, surrounded by magazines, cutting and pasting different elements, piecing together this domestic scene like a puzzle. The flat planes of colour - that big swath of yellow - sit against black and white photographs of furniture and a woman standing in a doorway. It reminds me of early pop art, of artists grabbing images from advertising and mass media, but pushing them into something new. It’s like he's asking, what makes a home? Is it the furniture, the decor, or the people inside? Painters are always talking to each other, across time and space. Hamilton was definitely in conversation with artists like Kurt Schwitters, who used collage to make art out of everyday life. And he paved the way for artists today who are still playing with image and text, still trying to make sense of the world around us.