In collaboration with Ikon Gallery, the British Council presents a seminal exhibition by Richard Hamilton, a major exponent of Pop art and one of the world’s most influential contemporary artists.  Demonstrating Hamilton’s preoccupation with what it is to live in a modern world pervaded by design, the exhibition includes multiples and "products" ranging from works on paper to sculptural pieces made since the 1960s.  

Hamilton has long been interested in the relationships and distinctions between fine art, product design and popular culture, and the exhibition coincides with the 10th International Shanghai Biennale which with its theme of “Hyper Design”, focuses on the relationship between art, utility and design.  

Central to the exhibition is a large scale recreation of a badge Hamilton purchased on his first visit to America in 1963 inscribed with the words "Slip it to me."  Entitled Epiphany (1964), it is a giant orange and blue disc, an ecstatic acceptance of the modern world.  Hamilton remarks that the button characterised what he most admired in American art of the time, “its audacity and wit."

In addition, works such as Ashtray (1979), an ashtray with the original Ricard product logo mutated to and containing a stubbed-out cigarette, the companion Table with Ashtray (2002), and Lux 50 (1979), a painting that is also a functioning hi-fi system, reflect Hamilton’s fascination with populated rooms and interiors.  Classic works from the 1960s such as Still-Life (1965), Toaster (1966-67), and The Critic Laughs (1968), a conflation of a Braun electric toothbrush and a set of false teeth, are shown alongside Hamilton’s computers and gadget works OHIO (1985) and Infowell (1997), the computers generating sequences of still and moving images.  

Also on display is the cover and poster insert for The Beatles “Double White” LP (long playing record) of 1968, both of which were designed by Hamilton.  The poster is a printed collage of photographs of John, Paul, George and Ringo, in effect a multiple that had a print run exceeding five million.    

A fully illustrated publication accompanies the exhibition with text by Richard Hamilton.  

The exhibition was first shown at the Gagosian Gallery, London in 2003, this new presentation at CQL Design Centre, Shanghai is co-produced by the British Council and Ikon Gallery.