Richard Hambleton

Richard Hambleton
Richard Hambleton's "Shadowman" painting, Lower Manhattan, New York, 1982
Born	June 1954 (age 62–63) Vancouver, Canada
Known for	Painter, graffiti
Website	richardhambleton.com

Richard Hambleton (born June 1954) is an artist currently living and working in the Lower East Side of New York City. Richard Hambleton has been called the godfather of street art. He is the surviving member of a group who, together with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, had great success coming out of the New York City art scene during the booming art market of the 1980s. Much of Hambleton's work is compared to graffiti art, however, Hambleton considers his work to be "public art".

Richard Hambleton was born in Vancouver, Canada in June 1954. He earned an Advanced Diploma from the Vancouver School of Art in Vancouver in 1975. Hambleton was also Founder and Co-Director “Pumps” Center for Alternative Art, a gallery, performance and video space in Vancouver.

Richard Hambleton's early public art is noteworthy for his Image Mass Murder concept. From 1976 to 1979 Hambleton painted a police "chalk" outline around bodies of volunteer "homicide victims." He then splashed some red paint on the outline, leaving behind a realistic looking crime scene. These "crime scenes" were done on the streets of 15 major cities across the United States and Canada. Like Hambleton's future "Shadowman" paintings, the Image Mass Murder "crime scenes" would often have the effect of startling or shocking passersby.

Richard 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, and even, in 1984, he painted 17 life-size figures on the East side of the Berlin Wall, returning a year later to paint more figures on the West side of the Berlin Wall. In 1983, during Malcolm McLaren's fashion design partnership with Vivienne Westwood, they collaborated with Hambleton to create a "Shadowman" jersey skirt.