Page 34 - Studio International - September 1966

Interview with Richard Hamilton

'What I am concerned with is producing people with good minds, who are capable of seeing society
as a whole, trained to think constructively though not necessarily productively.'

Note on Richard Hamilton Richard Hamilton The first aim of our course is a clearing proportion of neurotics. Perhaps a few more find their
Devised, organized, and of the slate. Removing preconceptions. People come to way into art schools than other departments. You can
constructed Growth and Form
exhibition at Institute of art school with ready-made ideas of what art is. We have see at once when an art student is under mental stress
Contemporary Arts 1951. to do some erasure. Then we have to build up a new sense because it's immediately apparent in the work he is
Devised, organized, and con- of values. We try to put across the idea that any activity
structed Man, Machine, and
Motion exhibition at I.C.A. should be the outcome of thinking. That is one of the
1955. First one-man show at common preconceptions—that art is not something you
Hanover Gallery 1955. think about but something you feel. What we do is to
Devised Pop-Op box in the
This is Tomorrow exhibition introduce problems which can be solved intellectually;
1956. In 1958 devised a founda- the graphic quality is not so important.
tion course with Victor Victor Willing Distinguishing between induction and
Pasmore at Newcastle, where
he had been teaching since deduction in problem solving, you have said elsewhere
1953. Took part in the that you are concerned with deduction. Shouldn't stu-
Developing Process exhibition dents do both?
at the I.C.A. 1959, (with
T. Hudson, H. Thubron, V. R.H. Yes, they have to sooner or later, but analysis is the
Pasmore and certain Gregory major part of their work. I think this is a reasonable
Fellows—Frost, Dalwood, approach in the beginning. Once they have a subjective
Davie).
Author of article about the notion it is put through an analytic process until they
Ulm School of Design, discover what its constituents are and the way in which
Design, 1959. Designed the these can be used to make a work of art.
typography of the English
edition of Duchamp's The V. W. The teacher is defining the rules of the game ?
Bride Stripped Bare by her R.H. I would not like to think so. It's really staking out
Bachelors Even 1960 an area of interest and letting the student find his own
Second one-man show
Hanover Gallery 1964. rules and solutions.
1965-6 constructed a new V. W. Do some students go on to become interested in
facsimile of Duchamp's Big solving practical problems by going into industrial
Glass The Bride ... for the
Tate Gallery Duchamp design ?
retrospective, and also wrote R.H. No. If they did they would go somewhere else. At
the catalogue note. Third Newcastle University they are working for a degree in
one-man show Robert Fraser
Gallery, September 1966 Fine Art and usually persist until they get it.
V.W. What can they do with it?
R.H. They can teach and that's about all.
V. W. Is giving a degree a way of making art education
acceptable to the grants authorities ? Shouldn't one aim
at persuading the educational establishment that they
should leave it to the school to decide whether a student
is using his time usefully, without the charade of a
degree ?
R.H. Well, at Newcastle we award our own degree. The
system works. What we are saying is that a person has
attended a four-year course, taken learning about art
fairly seriously, and has managed to do this without
getting into any difficulty in respect to social behaviour
which has upset the University authorities. I suppose
students have a right to a statement to that effect. When
we also have to say that one student has done this with
more talent and enthusiasm than another there are
dangers.
Above from the This is Tomorrow exhibition of 1956
V. W. Do art schools receive more neurotics than the
rest of higher education?
Far left Richard Hamilton dressed as an American footballer for
R.H. The universities as a whole probably have a high a Living Arts magazine cover photograph
132