On Friday, September 9th, Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld and Andy Valmorbida, in collaboration with Giorgio Armani and Phillips de Pury & Company, presented the opening of Richard Hambleton: A Retrospective. The opening, which took place at Philips de Pury’s uptown location on 57th Street in Manhattan, was literally wall-to-wall with the art and fashion crowd admiring the latest exhibit the legendary artist. Guests included Carine and Julia Roitfeld, Stephan Gan, Lauren Hutton, Ellen Von Unwerth, Anthony Haden-Guest, Indira Cesarine, and Alessandra Ambrosio among many others.
Curator Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld believes “Richard Hambleton’s brush stroke as an artist is genius and is in a league of its own. Most significantly, he is the most important and influential living street artist in the world today, with a story and career that is unparalleled.”
Hambleton rose to fame in the early 1980’s for his arresting art work displayed on the walls of buildings throughout the streets of New York. He gained the most recognition from his series of paintings “Shadowman” and “Crime Scene”. As of recent he is fondly being referred to as “The Godfather of Street Art”.
Hambleton is the last surviving member of the East Village Art Movement and leads a relatively reclusive life in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He continues to create and his works can be seen at The MOMA, the Brooklyn Museum, The Houston Museum of Fine Art, The Andy Warhol Museum, The Austin Museum of Art, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Harvard University, The Queens museum, The Check Point Charlie Museum and the Zellermeyer in Berlin.
Event Photos by Jeffrey Gamble for XXXX Magazine
