Study for The Solomon R. Guggenheim

1950s–1966

Teaches in Newcastle at Pasmore’s invitation

Through Penrose he meets Victor Pasmore, who gives him a teaching post in the Fine Art Department of Durham University at Newcastle upon Tyne, which lasts until 1966 (from 1952 to 1966 he also teaches at the Central School of Art and Design). Among his students are Rita Donagh, Mark Lancaster, Tim Head, Roxy Music founder Bryan Ferry and Ferry’s visual collaborator Nicholas de Ville; Hamilton described Ferry as “his greatest creation.”

1950–2010 · Virkested

Solingen

early 1960s

Rescuing Schwitters’s Merzbau

In the early 1960s he receives an Arts Council grant to investigate the condition of Kurt Schwitters’s Merzbau in Cumbria; the research eventually leads him to organize the work’s preservation by relocating it to the Hatton Gallery at Newcastle University.

1963

First trip to the US: Duchamp in Pasadena

Partly to recover from his loss, he travels to the United States for the first time for a retrospective of Marcel Duchamp’s work at the Pasadena Art Museum, where he meets other leading pop artists and is befriended by Duchamp.

from the mid-1960s

Robert Fraser and the “Swingeing London” series

From the mid-1960s he is represented by Robert Fraser, and produces a series of prints, “Swingeing London,” based on the arrest of Fraser and Mick Jagger for possession of drugs. In 1969 he discusses the series, and his preoccupation with mass media, through a selection of his own work in a documentary by James Scott.

1966

The first British Duchamp retrospective

He curates the first British retrospective of Duchamp’s work; his familiarity with the Green Box enables him to make copies of “The Large Glass” and other glass works too fragile to travel. The exhibition is shown at the Tate Gallery.