Richard Hamilton at Tate Modern

I could not miss this retrospective of almost 70 years, by the father of pop art, Richard Hamilton. It was good to see that Tate already owned quite a few pieces, and their curation and audioguide were definitely educational. I found out later, that he was born in 1922 in Pimlico to a not particularly artistic family. His drawing skills were noted early but it seemed that he also had a strong eye for science, mathematics and design.

In defining Pop Art as: popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business, he emphasised the importance of everyday post-war consumerism. Rather than focus on single products like Andy Warhol did, he used collage to mix and match in fairly random ways - both in 2 and 3 dimensions. Later he seemed to experiment with completing and saving several versions of his key themes. He also started working with photography and it seemed that the message became more important than the medium. His work adopted a political tone and he was critical of Thatcherism, IRA prisoners, Tony Blair's war decisions, the sweeping control of Israel and the search for the perfect nude. Overall, this was a very comprehensive exhibition of a very capable artist whose interest in architecture and design includes objects as diverse as the Guggenheim Museum in New York and a classic Braun toaster.