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| Artist | Richard Hamilton |
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| Year | 1956 |
| Type | Collage |
| Dimensions | 26 cm × 24.8 cm (10.25 in × 9.75 in) |
| Location | Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen |
Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? is a collage by English artist Richard Hamilton.[1][2] It measures 10.25 in (260 mm) × 9.75 in (248 mm). The work is now in the collection of the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. It was the first work of pop art to achieve iconic status.[2]
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History
Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? was created in 1956 for the catalogue of the This Is Tomorrow exhibition in London, England in which it was reproduced in black and white. In addition, the piece was used in posters for the exhibit.[3]
Richard Hamilton has subsequently created several works in which he reworked the subject and composition of the pop art collage, including a 1992 version featuring a female bodybuilder.
Many artists have created derivative works of Hamilton's collage. P. C. Helm made a year 2000 interpretation.[4]
Sources
The collage consists of images taken mainly from American magazines. The principal template was an image of a modern sitting-room in an advertisement in Ladies Home Journal for Armstrong Floors, which describes the "modern fashion in floors". The title is also taken from copy in the advert, which states "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? Open planning of course - and a bold use of color." The body builder is Irwin 'Zabo' Koszewski, winner of Mr L.A. in 1954. The photograph is taken from Tomorrow's Man magazine, September 1954. The artist Jo Baer, who posed for erotic magazines in her youth, has stated that she is the burlesque woman on the sofa, but this cannot be confirmed because the magazine from whch the picture is taken has not been identified. The staircase is taken from an advertisement for Hoover's new model "Constellation". The copy of Young Romance is an advertisement included in Young Love (no 15, 1950). The TV is a Stromberg-Carlson, taken from a 1955 advert. Hamilton asserted that the rug was a blow-up from a photograph depicting a crowd on the Whitley Bay beach, but this cannot be confirmed. The image of planet Earth at the top was cut from Life Magazine (Sept 1955).[5] The original reference image for the collage from Life Magazine supplied to Hamilton is in the John McHale archives at Yale University. The Victorian man in the portrait has not been identified; nor has the image of the periodical on the chair been identified. The tape recorder is of known make, but the source of the image has not been revealed.
Authorship
In 2006, artist John McHale's son, John McHale Jr., said that his father claimed he was the creator of the image, having provided the original measured design and iconic material for the collage, including the magazines from which much of the collage was assembled.[6] McHale said that the source material was his, sent to Hamilton from Yale University, where McHale was studying, and that Hamilton's role was simply "mechanical" cutting out and pasting according to McHale's design.
In response, Hamilton said this was "absurd. The collage has been widely reproduced over the last fifty years and my authorship was never, to my knowledge, contested by John McHale Sr. when he was alive."[7] Hamilton said that McHale provided him with a rough layout for six pages for the This is Tomorrow exhibition catalogue, but he only used two of them, and the other pages, including this collage, were created by himself; the American magazines that provided the images were from the collection of Magda and Frank Cordell, and the images were cut out by Hamilton's wife, Terry O'Reilly, and Magda Cordell.[7]
Magda Cordell has said that "some of the material for that collage came from John McHale's files", while other items came from American magazines brought back by her (from a visit to McHale at Yale), and that the piece was "put together" by Hamilton.[8]
A 2007 article by John-Paul Stonard asserts Hamilton's authorship of the collage, providing an exposition of the sources used by Hamilton and the circumstances in which the collage was created.[5]
Notes and references
- ^ Livingstone, Marco. Pop art: a continuing history, Thames and Hudson, 2000).
- ^ a b Dempsey, Amy. Styles, Schools and Movements, p.217, Thames and Hudson, 2002. ISBN 0500237883
- ^ "This is tomorrow", thisistomorrow2.com (scroll to "image 027TT-1956.jpg"). Retrieved 27 August 2008.
- ^ "Just what is it", pchelm.com. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
- ^ a b John-Paul Stonard (2007), "Pop in the Age of Boom: Richard Hamilton's ‘Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?’"PDF, The Burlington Magazine, September 2007
- ^ "Interview with John McHale (Jr.), warholstars.com, 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
- ^ a b "A statement by Richard Hamilton", warholstars.com, November 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
- ^ Robbins, David, editor. The Independent Group: Postwar Britain and the Aesthetics of Plenty, p.190, MIT Press 1990, ISBN 0262181398
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