Shock and Awe 2008

Richard Hamilton made this image, Shock and Awe, and it looks like he has built it up in layers. You can see the different kinds of mark-making where he has built the image, changing the tone and colour, especially in the face. What’s kind of wild about this work is the weird mix of the political and the personal. I mean, here’s Tony Blair dressed up like a cowboy, and he’s got these two guns. The whole image is a bit like a collage, where different elements are brought together to make a statement. Hamilton was probably thinking about how media and politics collide, and he's not afraid to point out the absurdities. Hamilton always kept his eyes open to what other artists were doing. There's a back-and-forth in the art world, where artists respond to each other's ideas, and it can be collaborative, critical, or even a bit competitive. I think he found his place as an image-maker by never stopping to look. That’s how conversations and dialogues start, right?