Hero in Art: The Vanished Traces of Richard Hambleton
By Istvan Kantor
Published by Howl! Happening and Autonomedia
 
“I was alive when I died.… That's the problem.” – Richard Hambleton
 
Howl! Happening is pleased to announce the publication of Hero in Art—The Vanished Traces of Richard Hambleton. Hambleton is best remembered as the visionary artist who created numerous guerilla public artworks, notably his iconic Shadowman series of black painted silhouettes that mysteriously appeared on buildings throughout Manhattan in the early 80s. Though he never viewed himself as a “street” artist, he is nonetheless seen as a progenitor of the movement. A contemporary of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, he was one of the principal players of the new wave of visual artists that erupted in New York's early 80s East Village and Lower East Side art scenes. 
 
“I painted the town black,” Mr. Hambleton told People magazine in 1984. “[The figures] could represent watchmen or danger or the shadows of a human body after a nuclear holocaust or even my own shadow.”
 
In this biographic novel, author Istvan Kantor (AKA Monty Cantsin, the founder of Neoism and long friend of Richard Hambleton), tells the story of the enigmatic artist who frustrated and inspired those around himthrough personal experiences and recollections by those who knew him. Subjects include Michael O’Connell, Eileen Doste, Franc Palaia, Howie Seligman, Hank O’Neil, Oren Jacoby, Clayton Patterson, Julius Klein, Linus Coraggio, Tom Warren, Blake Sandberg, Hugo Ariz, David Zack, Pat Ivers, Rick Librizzi, Nemo Librizzi, and Mike Malbon, as well romantic partners and other friends of Hambleton’s.