Abstract
Richard Hamilton is a significant figure in Pop Art. After his iconic project in ‘This is
Tomorrow’ Exhibition in 1956, he launched a number of Pop Art works and comments.
In the early 1970s, LUX Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer of Hi-Fi amplifiers,
approached Hamilton with its proposal to design a ‘Pop’ sculptural form of amplifiers
for the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1925. On his own way to Japan in 1974 to
consult with LUX Corporation on that proposal, he realised his interests lay less in
three-dimensional objects than in the representation of form on a two-dimensional
surface. In the end Hamilton created a two-dimensional art work and named it Lux
50—functioning prototype. Throughout this process, we can see Hamilton’s evolving
attitude towards design and his approach toward his art work. This paper will analyse
the records and documents of both LUX Corporation and Hamilton, and discuss
areas where Hamilton’s art and design overlap. By examining the creative process of
Hamilton’s work, we will see how Hamilton made a prototype ‘function’ in his two-
dimensional art.
