What My Friendship with Richard Hambleton Taught Me About ArtSpotlight on Ken Moss: Ex-Wall Street Investor, Art Collector and friend of Shadowman Richard Hambleton

Who Is Ken Moss?

Ken was born and raised in NYC. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Ken was an investor on Wall Street, taking companies and making them public. He would make deals, take the money then disappear for a while. Ken has always considered himself an outsider, a bit of an ‘odd-ball’ so this lifestyle suited him well. Nowadays he is still living in New York and continues to be a keen art enthusiast and collector.

It was after completing one of his financial deals in the late 70’s, that Ken immersed himself into the NYC Art Scene. He was part of what many called ‘the 500’, a group of people, including lots of intellectuals and artists, that would be out in NYC every night. This was how he first stumbled across Richard Hambleton. He was first intrigued when Hambleton began his mass murder scenes, Hambleton’s first well-recognised street art where he would draw out murder scene outlines, so authentic looking that when they first began appearing, people thought they were real. Later, when Hambleton’s shadowmen silhouettes started emerging, looming in the darkness of the early hours of a New York morning, Ken knew then that he had to meet Hambleton and learn more about what he and his art was about.

Ken and Richard Hambletons Friendship

Ken was introduced to Richard Hambleton by a mutual friend and this was the beginning of a ten-year friendship. Hambleton would allow Ken to just sit in his tiny windowless apartment and witness him paint. From this, Ken would buy any painting or art of Hambleton’s that he liked. He didn’t have a lot of money but would buy what he loved and Hambleton’s style would just continue to evolve. Many of these paintings are still in Ken’s possession now.

Hambleton’s style changed and developed over time. He had an incredible connection between his brain and his hand and this was translated into everything he did. He also had the unique ability to explain his art to others in a variety of different ways and in a range of formats. One of his downfalls witnessed by Ken, was his inability to deal with the monetary side of the emerging 1980s Art World. He lived on his own schedule and his own terms which often didn’t fit in with what galleries and investors wanted from him.

It’s no secret that Hambleton had his problems with drugs, but heroin misuse was not something Ken ever witnessed. He only knew Hambleton as a master of art, with a dry sense of humour. Richard was loved by many, Ken still wonders now if this was one of the reasons Hambleton would continue to retreat inwards and have periods of hiding from everyone and everything in the world.

Ken’s Life-Long Love of Art and Thoughts on The Art World

When Hambleton started creating art on the streets of New York it changed the game. Hambleton was the first person to authentically use New York City as a canvas. You didn’t have to be an intellectual to understand or comment on it and you didn’t have to go to a gallery to see it.

As well as Hambleton, Ken was also friends with many other artists of the time including Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Basquiat often slept on the floor of Ken’s apartment, an incredible street artist, but Ken found him to be a very strange man, Haring on the other hand, Ken discovered to be a wonderful and sweet guy. When the cash started flowing in for Basquiat and Haring, they became a brand. This meant everything they created then became about their brand and money, it was no longer about art. Hambleton was the complete opposite to this, he evolved, piece by piece and didn’t follow the money; he was a true artist.

After the booming 1980’s art market, the art world has been irreversibly changed. People often buy art for profit and because they see it as an investment, taste and love of the art mostly don’t come into the decision-making process. What also seems to have largely been left in the 1980’s art scene is the prolific and open use of drugs. Ken believes this is in part due to artists being so money orientated now, they worry about how they look, their brand and the financial impact of drug use.

Richard Hambleton is still considered by many to be largely undiscovered. Even so, in recent years, he has had some of his pieces go for big-ticket prices including As the world burns (1983), Mutiny which is was one of his seascapes anda further painting being bought by Giorgio Armani himself. Ken isn’t fazed by this one bit, he won’t ever sell the Hambleton’s he owns that he loves. They mean something more to him than just what they are, there is a story and a memory attached to each one. When people start to experience and acknowledge the broadness of Richard Hambleton’s talent, Ken thinks the interest and subsequently the price of his art, will explode. Ken truly believes that Woodbury House are doing incredible things for Hambleton, bringing him to a wider audience including via a book and are doing his art justice.