Sacrificing art for ideas

Richard Hamilton: Modern Moral Matters
Serpentine Gallery, until 25 April

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Serpentine Gallery, that most welcoming of exhibition venues — the gallery in the park — with its wide views and well-appointed rooms. Expectation rises as the visitor walks through gardens burgeoning with spring, even if it is raining. To start its anniversary year, the Serpentine has mounted an exhibition of Richard Hamilton’s political work entitled (in homage, presumably, to Hogarth) Modern Moral Matters. The show is a real disappointment: the blinds are down to focus the visitor’s attention inward, which might be acceptable if there were riches to be seen. Instead, the galleries are scarcely filled with one of the thinnest exhibitions in a public space I’ve seen for years. I’m staggered that it’s taken three people to curate it.

Don’t get me wrong: I’ve great respect for Richard Hamilton (born 1922), as member of the Independent Group, progenitor of Pop Art and as a painter and printmaker.