RICHARD HAMILTON — Drawings, prints and paintings 1941–55, Anthony d'Offay, London, 1979

Anthony d'Offay published this catalogue in 1979 for an exhibition devoted to the years before Richard Hamilton became the Richard Hamilton of art history. Its chronology stops in 1955: one year before Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, before British Pop had acquired its defining image and before Hamilton's position within it became fixed.

Hamilton had spent the war working as a technical draughtsman before returning to the Royal Academy Schools, from which he was expelled in 1946 for, in the institution's own formulation, “not profiting from the instruction being given in the painting school.” National Service followed, then the Slade, where another, much longer project began.

In 1948 Hamilton started making images in response to James Joyce’s Ulysses. He initially imagined them as illustrations for publication; when advised that no publisher would be interested in an unknown student illustrating Joyce, the project simply continued without one. Hamilton returned to Ulysses repeatedly for roughly the next fifty years.

Two of those early images face one another here. Bronze by gold, begun during that first period, takes its title from the opening of the “Sirens” episode: bronze-haired Miss Douce and gold-haired Miss Kennedy, the two barmaids of Dublin’s Ormond Hotel. Behind them, lettering appears in reverse through Hamilton’s use of the mirror — a device he would retain when he returned to the composition decades later. Opposite is Going to a dark bed, 1949, its title drawn from the closing passages of “Ithaca.” Together the two plates make the spread unexpectedly important: not miscellaneous student work, but evidence that one of the longest-running projects of Hamilton’s career was already underway before the Independent Group, before Pop and before the public construction of “Richard Hamilton” had begun. The project would eventually be brought together publicly at the British Museum in 2002, more than half a century after these first attempts.

The cover becomes better once you know that history. Its ruled lines, pink-red bursts, smudges and apparent stains are not damage to this copy but part of the original printed design. Instead of presenting a finished masterpiece, the catalogue wraps Hamilton’s early career in something resembling a working sheet: provisional, marked, diagrammatic, unfinished.

In 1980, Anthony d’Offay went backwards. Past Pop, past the famous collage, past the established artist — to the draughtsman, student, Joyce obsessive and painter who existed immediately before art history found its convenient starting point.

The fame hadn’t arrived yet. The obsession already had.

Exhibition catalogue, 27 February–29 March 1980. Anthony d’Offay, 9 Dering Street, London W1, 1979. 12 × 17 cm, 32 pages, illustrated softcover.

Condition: Very good. Light age toning and minor handling wear. The faint marks, ruled lines and apparent staining across the wrappers are part of the original printed design; contents clean.