exclusivelife. | ART
THE HUNT FOR
HAMBLETON H A MB LETON EXPERT S C OME TOG ET H ER O N A MI S S I ON TO REUNI T E RARE W OR KS B Y T HE I C ONI C ART I S T
W
oodbury House is a well-respected private art studio in the heart of Soho, London. It has built itself a reputation as the go-to destination for artwork by legendary street artist Richard Hambleton, a contemporary and friend of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol. Hambleton was best known for the arresting and ephemeral ‘Shadowman’ wall paintings that popped up all over New York in the 1980s, and later throughout Europe. Coined ‘The Godfather of Street Art’ by the New York Times, Hambleton is regarded a legend of the street art world as many artists have used his artwork as inspiration, most notably Banksy, who is passionate about disclosing where he derives his artistic inspiration from. With investors and collectors worldwide now stockpiling Hambleton’s work - it’s tipped to rise in value much as the work of his contemporaries – the core team of art specialists at Woodbury House, led by Steven Sulley and Joseph Bannan, hosted at the beginning of September an exclusive preview of never-seen-before works by Richard Hambleton at the Owner’s Club at Puente Romano and shared tips on how to build up investment collections of highly reputable art pieces. The story about how Woodbury House uncovered some of Richard Hambleton’s forgotten work is compelling to say the least. In 2016, the brand’s co-founder, Steven Sulley, was approached by a dealer regarding an overlooked piece he had never heard of; his curiosity, and his suspicion, was piqued. Steven Sulley said “The artwork was described to us as The Richard Hambleton Box --- a painting of a Shadowman, folded in a booklet, stored within a wooden box. My initial reaction was that this was a gimmick, compared to the canvas or paper works we were used to acquiring.” Nonetheless, Sulley and his close collaborator, fellow Hambleton fanatic, art collector and consultant Michael Joseph, decided to take a punt on purchasing the box, sight unseen, as it remained for some time. Once the box eventually arrived at Woodbury House, it revealed itself to contain a remarkable rendering on paper of a work that Joseph and Sulley recognised to have originally been made on the streets of New York City. The work was stunning, and the pair decided not to put it up for sale, but instead to keep hold of it until they could find the most appropriate outlet. Eighteeen months later, on a trip to view a rare Hambleton bust in a Swiss storage facility, Joseph stumbed upon twenty boxes that he immediately recognised to be similar to that which they had purchased all those months ▶
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| EXCLUSIVE LIFE MAGAZINE
