Sale: 433 / Post War I, June 11. 2016 in Munich Lot 963

 

963
Richard Hamilton
Release, 1972.
Silkscreen in colors
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,400
Sold:
€ 33,750 / $ 36,112

(incl. surcharge)
Release. 1972.
Silkscreen in colors with collaged silver foil.
Lullin 83. Signed and numbered as well as with embossed copyright sign. Froman edition of 150 copies. On wove paper by Hodgkinson (with watermark). 68.6 x 86.3 cm (27 x 33.9 in). Sheet: 70,2 x 94,5 cm (27,6 x 37,2 in).
Printed by the artist and Chris Prater, Kelpra Studio, London (verso with the stamp), released by Petersburg Press, London.
The edition was made for Release, a nonprofit organization for the support of the vuctims of drug abuse, and the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL).[JA].
Popular motif showing the arrest of Mick Jaggers.

This work shows Mick Jagger and the art dealer Robert Fraser, handcuffed in a prisoner transport on their way to their sentencing on 28 June 1967. Both were sentenced for the possession of narcotics. A verdict that made the headlines. Richard Hamilton expressed his "outrage about the madness of the legal institutions […], which can imprison everybody for self-destruction through drugs“, so that he used a press photo, released in the "Daily Sketch“, and processed it in various steps. (Richard Hamilton. Quote after: Etienne Lullin. Richard Hamilton, Druckgraphik und Multiples 1939 - 2002, p. 104). Through the artistic treatment of a press photo, which claims to depict truth, the artist plays with questions regarding fact and fiction and challenges the documental character of photographs.



963
Richard Hamilton
Release, 1972.
Silkscreen in colors
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,400
Sold:
€ 33,750 / $ 36,112

(incl. surcharge)