THE MF GODFATHER OF STREET ART
RICHARD FU*KING HAMBLETON
“I painted the streets to put my mark on the world—not to sell it, not to own it—but to make people feel something when they pass by.”
– Richard Hambleton
Richard Hambleton, often hailed as the Godfather of Street Art, carved his name into the gritty alleys and shadowed corners of 1980s New York. Born in Vancouver, Canada, he brought an artist’s eye and a rebel’s spirit to a city that was both his canvas and his muse. His enigmatic “Shadowman” figures, painted in black silhouettes, loomed large over urban landscapes, startling passersby and making the night feel electric.
Hambleton’s work wasn’t just paint on concrete; it was a social commentary, a statement about existence, anonymity, and the unseen. Often misunderstood, Richard battled the highs of fame and the lows of addiction, remaining fiercely committed to his art until his final days. The impact of his work echoes through the generations, inspiring street artists around the globe.
Shop His Artwork
Browse a curated selection of Hambleton’s original works and limited-edition prints. Each piece is a testament to his fearless approach to street art, embodying raw emotion and the unpredictability of urban life.
about
After a whirlwind tour, Richard Hambleton landed in New York City in 1979, where he quickly earned the title "Godfather of Street Art" from the New York Times. With New York as his playground, he used the gritty urban landscape to provoke, unsettle, and ignite conversation through his unmistakable style.
While Paris had long held the crown as the hub of modern art, by the mid-80s, Manhattan had become the epicenter of urban contemporary art and the birthplace of the street art movement. It was a wild and intoxicating time—a cultural explosion where artists, musicians, and creators blurred the lines between disciplines, captivating the world and dominating the media spotlight.
As Hambleton's star rose, the art scene itself was booming, with being an artist no longer seen as a hobby but a serious career path. The community was tight-knit, drawn together by shared ideals and a hunger to challenge the status quo. Whether tackling issues like capitalism, apartheid, or the AIDS crisis, these artists weren’t just creating; they were confronting the world head-on. It was a time when legends collided—Andy Warhol shared space with pop icons like Grace Jones, and the downtown art scene crackled with energy.
Hambleton was at the heart of it all, a pioneer and a provocateur, helping to shape a new era of New York’s art scene. Together with close friends and fellow game-changers Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, he created an unforgettable sensation that’s still making waves today.
MASS MURDER
Richard Hambleton’s Mass Murder series emerged in the early 1980s during New York City's crackdown on graffiti. In an era of intense anti-crime sentiment, Hambleton used chalked silhouettes of "victims," signed with the alias “Mr. Reeee,” to capture the city's raw tension. The name "Mr. Reeee" was deliberately ambiguous, inviting speculation about the identities of the victim, the killer, and the artist himself.
This series evolved into Hambleton’s Shadowman works, where he took on another alter ego, “R. Dick Trace It,” a nod to detective Dick Tracy. This role positioned him as both artist and investigator, blending into the gritty urban environment he called home in New York’s Lower East Side. There, Hambleton drew inspiration from the decay and mystery around him, famously saying, "Great ideas are hidden in the holes of the walls and under the rubble."
By embodying roles of criminal, detective, and victim, Hambleton’s art became an exploration of invisibility, presence, and absence, inviting viewers into his complex, shadowy world filled with layers of meaning and ambiguity.
i only have eyes for you
In the late 1970s, Richard Hambleton launched I Only Have Eyes For You, a project where he placed full-body cutouts of himself around downtown Manhattan at night. Positioned in hidden spots like alleys and under streetlights, these figures created an eerie feeling of being watched. Over time, the weather caused the portraits to degrade, leaving ghostly grey silhouettes on the walls, which inspired Hambleton’s iconic Shadow Man series. The fading images became a haunting residue, marking a significant shift in his artistic career.
Richard Hambleton’s Nightlife series, created in the early 1980s, captured the dark, gritty energy of New York’s streets after hours. These iconic paintings, often featuring figures in shadowy, urban environments, depicted haunting silhouettes of individuals, sometimes masked or faceless, navigating the city's nocturnal chaos. The works were meant to evoke a sense of isolation, danger, and mystery, drawing inspiration from the seedy nightlife and the hidden corners of the city. The Shadow Men series, a natural evolution of Nightlife, deepened this exploration of anonymity and presence. Hambleton’s shadowy figures, painted in stark black outlines, became spectral presences, often blending into the environment to the point of near invisibility. These figures blurred the line between life and death, presence and absence, inviting viewers into a world where the boundaries between the seen and unseen were constantly shifting. Both series reflected Hambleton’s fascination with the interplay of light and darkness, and the haunting idea of being both part of and apart from the urban landscape.
Richard Hambleton’s Horse and Rider series emerged in the mid-1980s as a critique of the Marlboro cigarette ads, which romanticised the image of the rugged cowboy. Hambleton saw a contradiction between the cowboy’s strong, healthy image and the harmful effects of smoking. He reimagined the cowboy as a silhouetted figure on a bucking bronco, starting with smaller studies on paper that later influenced larger life-sized pieces. Drawing inspiration from a Remington horse sculpture, Hambleton’s fluid ink and acrylic works captured the dynamic energy of the rodeo. Despite the series' growing popularity, Hambleton occasionally considered retiring it, even as his fame continued to rise.
blood art
Driven by a desire to create art with any materials available to him, Richard Hambleton began using blood from his own syringes as a medium. He mixed it with distilled water to craft landscapes, seascapes, and floral scenes, usually on paper, using a unique watercolor-like approach. When freshly applied, the blood appeared as a vivid red, but as it dried, it transformed into rich sepia and golden-brown hues that he found especially appealing. His "Blood Paintings" varied in complexity, from simple strokes depicting flowers to intricate, sweeping vistas, depending on his mood. By using his own blood, Hambleton infused his work with the essence of his life itself, adding a lasting quality to his art.
