Stage Proof 9 1972

Curator: Richard Hamilton’s “Stage Proof 9” presents a strangely intimate yet obscured moment. What strikes you first about this piece? Editor: The overwhelming feeling of visual censorship. Two figures shielding their eyes, almost theatrically, from something unseen. Is it a critique of media spectacle, perhaps? Curator: It could be. Hamilton often played with the idea of mediated reality. The flat planes of color and the graphic quality remind me of screen printing, underscoring that sense of manufactured image. Editor: Absolutely. The figures, rendered in such a detached style, become almost archetypal, representing a collective refusal to engage with something disturbing or overwhelming. Curator: I think you nailed it. There's a tension between the mundane—these look like men in suits—and this dramatic gesture. It leaves you wondering what they’re shielding themselves from, doesn’t it? Editor: It does. It makes me think about our own culpability as viewers, in what we choose to see, and what we choose to ignore. Curator: Ultimately, Hamilton offers a mirror, challenging us to confront our own relationship with the overwhelming nature of modern imagery. Editor: Right. And prompting reflection on what aspects of reality we, too, might be tempted to obscure.