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I'm dreaming of a black Christmas

1971
Not on view
Hamilton first referenced Irving Berlin’s popular holiday ballad in an oil painting (1967–68) with reversed colors based on a color-negative film still of Bing Crosby in the famous 1954 film "White Christmas." Hamilton used yet another negative, taken from his earlier painting, as the basis for this print. The painting’s reversed colors now appear in positive, an eerie echo of its cinematic source. Hamilton complicates the process from film still to painting to print (and from positive to negative and back again) with marks that look like paint: some are photographic transfers, some are silkscreened replicas of painterly strokes, and some are handmade additions.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: I'm dreaming of a black Christmas
  • Artist: Richard Hamilton (British, London 1922–2011 Oxfordshire)
  • Date: 1971
  • Medium: Screenprint on collotype with pasted paper sticker
  • Edition: 58/150 + 15 artist's proofs
  • Dimensions: 29 7/8 × 39 3/8 in. (75.9 × 100 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Reba and Dave Williams Gift, 2000
  • Object Number: 2000.381
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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Lobby, Richard Hamilton British, Color collotype and screenprint
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Self-Portrait, Richard Hamilton British, Color screenprint
Self-Portrait
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Portrait of Dieter Roth, Richard Hamilton British, Inkjet print
Portrait of Dieter Roth
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1998
Swingeing London 67, Richard Hamilton British, Etching, aquatint, photoetching, and collage, embossed and die stamped with metallic foil
Swingeing London 67
Richard Hamilton
Petersburg Press
1968
Five Tyres Remoulded
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