Richard Hambleton | Shadow Head

Richard Hambleton (1952–2017)
Shadow Head
Oil on canvas | Original

Before Banksy stencilled walls, before KAWS colonised galleries, Richard Hambleton was painting ominous black silhouettes on the streets of lower Manhattan. His Shadowman figures appeared on unexpected corners, in alleys, behind doorways — figures at the periphery of vision that made the city feel watched. Blek le Rat, one of the founding figures of European street art, said of Hambleton: "He's the only artist I ever bought a painting off, one of the greatest." Banksy has cited him as a direct influence.

Shadow Head represents the studio evolution of Hambleton's most iconic motif — the silhouette distilled to its essential psychology. The gestural, splatter-heavy technique that defined his street work is preserved intact: this is not a cleaned-up or refined version of the Shadowman. It carries the same immediacy, the same sense that the image has been made quickly and with complete authority. Oil on canvas, in a format that rewards sustained looking.

Hambleton's work is held in the Brooklyn Museum, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. His market has strengthened considerably since the release of the Tribeca documentary Shadowman in 2017 and the publication of the definitive Rizzoli monograph in 2022. Original works of this quality surface rarely.

Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot. Private viewings by appointment. Secure, insured delivery throughout Berkshire, Surrey, and London.

Original
Oil on canvas
45 × 74 cm
Contemporary conservation-grade frame: 60 × 90 cm
Certificate of Authenticity