ABSTRACT
In western democracies modern wars are normally reported immediately and in detail by television, radio and the press. Many images and much information reaches the public in spite of government censorship and the selection/editing procedures undertaken by the media themselves. The artist employed modern media recording technologies videotape and still cameras - to 'sketch' in the field but, somewhat paradoxically, what emerged from his London studio were traditional, hand-painted canvases and drawings executed in a vehement, quasi-expressionist style. In 1991 John Keane, a British figurative painter, was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to cover the Gulf War. The subject of Richard Hamilton's painting was thus the Gulf War as mediated by the mass media, rather than the war as directly perceived. Hamilton evidently believes that the art of painting still has an important social function, that it can generate long-lasting, monumental icons that museums will preserve for the benefit of future generations.
