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One of the defining paintings of British Pop art, Richard Hamilton’s Swingeing London 67 (f)depicts two men – Mick Jagger and Hamilton’s art dealer Robert Fraser – handcuffed together in the back of a police van.
The image is taken from a newspaper photograph that shows the two being driven from Lewes prison to Chichester Magistrates Court following their June 1967 arrest for possession of drugs. In this illustrated study of Hamilton’s painting, Andrew Wilson views Swingeing London 67 (f)as history painting, to be understood in the context of the struggle against the British state’s attempt–aided and abetted by the popular press – to repress any expression of personal liberation.
