Frederick Hammersley

"At first I would paint a shape that I would 'see' there. That one colored shape in that canvas would work, or fit. The next shape would come from the feeling of the first plus the canvas. This process would continue until the last shape completed the picture.

The structure making is of prime importance. Until this is right nothing further can be done. After the picture works in line the shapes 'become' colors. I answer the hunch as it comes."

- Frederick Hammersley (1919 - 2009)

One of the celebrated “Four Abstract Classicists” of Jules Langsner’s landmark exhibition (which also included Lorser Feitelson, Karl Benjamin, and John McLaughlin), Frederick Hammersley distinguished himself through his continuous experimentation with medium, including computer-generated art.

Born in Salt Lake City and raised in Idaho and San Francisco, Hammersley studied briefly at Chouinard before serving in World War II. After being discharged in 1945, Hammersley studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and became exposed to abstract artists like Picasso and Cézanne. Upon returning to Los Angeles, he returned to Chouinard and later continued his studies at the Jepson Art Institute. Hammersley began teaching in addition to painting and would become known as a distinguished educator at Jepson, then Pomona College, Pasadena Art Museum, Chouinard, and the University of New Mexico. After retiring from teaching in 1971, Hammersley devoted himself to his artistic practice until his death.

Hammersley continually reinvented his approach to abstraction, shifting from Hard-Edge “Abstract Classicism” to organic forms and intuitive shapes he called “hunch” paintings. While at the University of New Mexico, Hammersley began working with the computer program Art1 and IBM punch cards to create computer-generated drawings, making him an early computer artist.

Hammersley’s works are included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art, among many others.