RICHARD HAMBLETON: BIO RICHARD HAMBLETON: IO Richard Hambleton earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Emily Carr School of Art in Vancouver, Canada. Hambleton was Founder and Co- Director of Pumps Center for Alternative Art, which was an art gallery, performance and video space in Vancouver. Hambleton went on to graduate from San Francisco Institute of Art in San Francisco, CA. (born June 1952 in Vancouver, Canada) was an artist-painter who lived and worked in the Lower East Side of New York City. He has been called the godfather of street art. Together with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, he was a member of a group who had great success coming out of the New York City art scene during the booming art market of the 1980 . Richard Hambleton earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Emily Carr School of Ar in Vancouver, Canada. Hambl ton was Founder and Co- Director of Pumps Center for Alternative Art, which was an art gallery, performance and video space in Vancouver. Ha bleton went on to graduate from San Francisco Institute of Art in San Francisco, CA. Courtesy of the LANGS DE WALL Gallery Born: June 1954 Vancouver, Canada rn: June 1952 Vancouver, Canada Born: June 1954 Vancouver, Canada i l Much of Hambleton’s work is compared to graffiti art, however, he considered his work to be “public art”. Hambleton is most famous for his ‘Shadowman’ paintings of the early 1980s. Each painting resembles a life-sized silhouetted image of some mysterious person, a “splashy shadow figure”. These ‘shadow paintings’ were splashed and brushed with black paint on hundreds of buildings and other structures across New York City. Locations were believed to be calculated for maximum impact upon unsuspecting pedestrians. Very often, a ‘Shadowman’ could be found in a dark alley or lurking just around a street corner. Hambleton later expanded the scope of his project and painted these ‘shadowmen’ in other cities, including Paris, London and Rome. In 1984 he painted 17 life-sized figures on the east side of the Berlin Wall, returning a year later to paint more figures on the west side. During his career, Hambleton’s works were shown internationally in world-class galleries and museums, including his “shadow” paintings on canvas and paper. Hambleton’s artwork was represented at the Venice Biennale in 1984 and 1988, and is now part of numerous permanent collections, including that of the Museum of Modern Art. New York Times art critic Michael Brenson, when commenting on Hambleton’s exceptional skill at handling paint, wrote: ‘When he throws white or black on the canvas, his waves break, his rodeo rider bucks, a man shot seems blown apart.’ In October 2009, Papermag wrote of Hambleton: ‘Memo to Banksy: You owe Richard Hambleton a small fortune in royalties. You too, KAWS. Hambleton’s early ‘80’s onsite works-dynamic, painted ‘shadowmen’ on street corners and in alleyways - are clear precursors of the early ‘00’s graffiti-art boom, and Hambleton himself, a contemporary of Keith Haring and Jean- Michel Basquiat, one of its unsung godfathers.’ Richard died on October 29th, 2017. Courtesy of the LANGS DE WALL Gallery
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