Contemporary Art Online | New York

Contemporary Art Online | New York

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 132. RICHARD  HAMBLETON | SHADOW CAT.

RICHARD HAMBLETON | SHADOW CAT

Lot Closed

July 18, 04:29 PM GMT

Estimate

12,000 - 18,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

RICHARD HAMBLETON

1952 – 2017

SHADOW CAT


acrylic and glitter on neon poster board

Sheet: 22 by 17⅛ in. (56 by 43.5 cm.)

Framed: 25⅞ by 20⅞ in. (65.8 by 53 in.)

Executed circa 1990.


PROVENANCE

Private Collection, New York (acquired directly from the artist)

Private Collection, New York (acquired directly from the artist)

An American-Canadian graffiti artist, Richard Hambleton initially attracted public attention by painting faux crime-scene outlines of bodies on pavements. In the early 1980s, Hambleton painted buildings in the Lower East Side of New York City alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, during which time the artist also began to portray iterations of his highly recognized Shadowman figures onto found objects and canvases. According to the artist, “they could represent watchmen or danger or the shadows of a human body after a nuclear holocaust or even my own shadow”.


Richard Hambleton’s work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1984 and 1985, and as part of the Venice Biennales of 1984 and 1988, respectively, where he painted his signature shadowmen across Venice. A subsequent tour of Europe brought his figures to the streets of Paris, Rome and London. He also travelled to Berlin to paint seventeen life-size shadowmen on the eastern side of Berlin Wall, returning a year later to paint more on the western side. The Shadowman stands as a symbol of a moment in time, an instantly recognizable figure that will forever permeate our psyche.