Wright Auction

Remembering Richard Hambleton
by Robert Murphy

I first met Richard Hambleton at the Bond Street Gallery in the winter of 1989. Richard had stopped by the gallery to sell a Keith Haring drawing. I introduced myself. Richard called me the next day and came up to my office on 53rd/9th Avenue with some artworks. I purchased several pieces and commissioned a work. 

It took him weeks to complete my painting. Richard was living at the 2B gallery on 2nd Street in an abandoned gas station painted black. I helped him move from 2B to the Stantion Street Gallery. I would help him move at least 7 more times over the next three decades. 

In 1992, I relocated my own studio to 420 West 49th Street between 9th and 10th Avenue. It was a store front with a 10’ x 20’ foot large brick wall. Richard would call me after work, and I would prepare my space for him. I ran a high end painting business at the time and used materials from my job to apply the backgrounds—Dutch metal, aluminum leaf and sometimes gold leaf—on canvas or Masonite, framed and unframed.

I would get everything ready for Richard including purchasing a cheeseburger, coffee and cigarettes. When he arrived, we would talk art for a while, then Richard would look around at all of the prepared canvases, supports and gilded framed pieces and start thinking about what he was going to work on that day. Sometimes he would use a sharpie to sketch figures on the paper bag that the cheeseburger came in. 

It was amazing to watch Richard paint. He would work extremely fast and never re-worked a single piece. Richard would hold his cigarette rocking back and forth moaning a bit then pick up a brush and go to town.

We would repeat this routine countless times over the years. When he was unable to make it to my space during the day or after work, I would have my brother drive me to the art store to pick up a box of canvases then we’d pick up Richard. I would paint the backgrounds on the canvases and Richard would paint jumping shadows on them while we drove around town. Richard would yell “Stop” when he saw a wall he wanted to paint a shadow on. 

Our pattern changed briefly after the world trade center collapsed, though we continued to meet downtown about once a month. When Richard had his gallery shows around 2009, we picked back up where we left off. Though his health was failing, he maintained a sense of humor and he continued to paint. 

I remember Richard, not only as the most talented conceptual expressionist of his time, but as a friend.