Frederick Hammersley "Paintings and Works on Paper" @ LA Louver

Over the past five or six years, I have become completely enamored with Hammersley's work. Through the course of three exhibitions at LA Louver in 2013, 2014, and this one from 2017, I have seen a large segment of his oeuvre. Very little disappoints with its interests between organic/geometric abstraction formally, consistent inconsistencies (or is it inconsistent consistencies), and so on.  The point is that through an art practice, comprised primarily of painting, and drawing, Hammersley has managed to dissect and draw attention to irreconcible yet irrevocably connected issues surrounding concepts of sequence and form, some revelation of thought itself, I presume.

In the spirit of cutting up, I have rearranged the sequence of my viewing and the viewing sequence of the gallery show itself to be sure.  For the most part, I often share my images in the same sequence that I view the show, as if there were some kind of authenticity at stake about such ordering.  Sometimes, rigid structures must give way to softer, more malleable things, and, this, I believe, is where my interest in Hammersely connects.  Note, also, that there is missing information. As I learn more about certain works, I will update. Would be great to have the information complete. Alas, like the reordering/cutting-up, things may never quite be ideal.  More than anything, is my hope that these images will reveal the value of chronology and its alternative synchronic approach. Perhaps, it can be said that form is out of order.

Family Tree #2, 1991

oil on 7-ply oak in artist-made-frame

panel: 8 3/8 x 11 1/2 in.

frame: 11 3/4 x 14 3/4 in.

Hot & heavy, #5, 1990

oil on cotton on birch in artist-made frame

panel: 9 x 11 in. (22.9 x 27.9 cm)

frame: 14 x 16 in. (35.6 x 40.6 cm

Money from home, #8, 1986

oil on rag paper on linen on wood in artist-made frame

panel: 7 3/4 x 10 1/8 in. (19.7 x 25.7 cm)

frame: 10 3/4 x 13 3/4 in. (27.3 x 34.9 cm)

Missing information

Missing information

Cross reference, #10, 1980

oil on linen

45 x 45 in. (114.3 x 114.3 cm)

Altered Ego, #4, 1971

oil on linen

44 x 44 in. (111.8 x 111.8 cm)

Poles a part, #8, 1980

oil on linen

45 x 45 in. (114.3 x 114.3 cm)

Pre prayed, #1, 1981

oil on linen

45 x 45 in. (114.3 x 114.3 cm)

Pact, #4, 1978

oil on linen

45 x 45 in. (114.3 x 114.3 cm)

Dark & like #23, 1977

oil on linen

38 x 38 in.

square off, 1973

lithograph

image: 18 x 18 in. (45.7 x 45.7 cm)

paper: 22 x 22 in. (55.9 x 55.9 cm)

Altered Ego, #4, 1971

oil on linen

44 x 44 in. (111.8 x 111.8 cm)

CAPITOL .1, 28 APR 69

computer drawing / print on paper

11 x 14 3/4 in (27.9 x 37.5)

GEE WHIZ, 1969

computer-generated drawing on paper

paper: 11 x 15 in. (27.9 x 38.1 cm)

Family #1, 1973

lithograph

image: 16 3/4 x 10 3/4

paper: 22 1/8 x 16 3/4

Missing information

Cut up, #30c, 1964

oil on chipboard panel in artist-made frame

panel: 16 x 16 in. (40.6 x 40.6 cm)

frame: 21 1/4 x 21 1/4 in. (54 x 54 cm)

Before + after, #2, 1964

oil on chipboard panel in artist-made frame

panel: 18 x 24 in. (45.7 x 55.9 cm)

frame: 26 x 30 in. (66 x 76.2 cm)

 By itself, #22, 1962

oil on chipboard panel in artist-made frame

panel: 14 x 17 in. (35.6 x 43.2 cm)

framed: 22 1/4 x 25 1/4 in. (56.5 x 64.1 cm) /

Missing information

Four, 1954

oil on linen in artist-made frame

canvas: 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm)

frame: 21 3/4 x 25 3/4 in.

Missing information

no title, 1951

watercolor on paper

6 3/4 x 9 3/4 in. (17.1 x 24.8 cm)

sticks and stones, 1950

colored pencil on paper in artist-made frame

image: 4 3/4 x 5 1/8 in.

frame: 11 x 12

Green experiment, 1950

relief in artist-made frame

panel: 7 3/4 x 7 5/8 in. (20.3 x 20.3 cm)

frame: 9 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (23.5 x 23.5 cm)

Steps from Sacre Coeur Paris, 1944

black and white photograph in artist-made-frame

image: 4 1/2 x 7 in.

frame: 9 x 11 1/4 in.

Tafts 1 & 2, 1950

lithograph in artist-made frame

image: 3 x 3 in. (7.6 x 7.6 cm)

frame: 8 x 8 in. (20.3 x 20.3 cm)

 Silver lining, 1950

lithograph in artist-made frame

image: 3 x 3 in. (7.6 x 7.6 cm)

frame: 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. (21 x 21 cm)

Missing information

Missing information

Missing information

Missing information

Missing information

Missing information

Missing Information

Self portrait & canvas, 1950

oil on cotton in artist-made frame

panel: 19 x 15 in. (48.3 x 38.1 cm)

frame: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)

still life - wood, 1948

lithograph

image: 10 7/8 x 7 1/2 in. (27.6 x 19.1 cm)

paper: 13 x 10 in. (33 x 25.4 cm)

new rules, 1951

crayon on paper

3 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.

Missing information

Berlin Street 1945, 1945

black and white photograph in artist-made frame

image: 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (16.5 x 11.4 cm)

frame: 11 1/2 x 9 in. (29.2 x 22.9 cm) 

First still life (Ft Hall, ID), 1937

oil on upson board in artist-made frame

panel: 16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm)

frame: 19 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. (49.5 x 39.4 cm)

Dark & like #23, 1977

oil on linen

38 x 38 in.

Missing information

inward (no comment), 1975

ink and pencil on paper

7 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.

Missing information

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy "Future Present" @ LACMA

K VII, 1922

Oil and graphite on canvas

Yellow Circle and Black Square, 1921

Oil and graphite on canvas

E IV (Construction VII), 1922

Oil on canvas

Construction, 1922

Oil and graphite on panel

I wish I had taken a little more time to learn about this image from the "Room of the Present" installation. It caught my attention; recalled Giacometti's "Palace at 4AM" in some way; and struck me just how present this picture and form coheres with my own work right now.  Maybe the viewing and this image is enough not to mention the myth and drama that surrounds the realization of this particular installation from its initial inception until now.  The space of unknowns and shifting thoughts and perspectives seems rich enough as it pertains to this work as well as others.

In general, I did not scour this exhibition the way I normally would.  Namely, I think it is due to the fact that it was both an overwhelming amount of material; work that registered quickly and easily: and I had recently seen a much smaller body of work at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (see here) and felt in many respects that I had seen enough.  I'm intrigued by the concepts but only some of the forms that these works take whether they be physical or pictorial. On the latter, the Santa Barbara show was focused on paintings for the most part and this seemed adequate to my interest. With Moholy-Nagy's self-professed concern for shifting, pictorial spaces (painting concerns to be sure), this more recent cursory view also seemed to suffice as the catalogs and other books capture much of what is needed to take in these works.  Somehow it became an all or nothing situation. Perhaps this is  the case as one either apprehends a single view or conversely and continuously, slips into an infinite number of views that no amount of documentation can provide not even video, though someone like Michael Snow may have tried.  Further, and for whatever reason, I found such works, the kinetic sculptures to be much less engaging and therefore not as useful. These are the ones that I suspect the Zero Group in Germany were most fond of.  Sure they are tantalizing for a moment, but their durational substance seems modest at best, kind of like a pin wheel or a fidget spinner. Perhaps, they are too easily digested (perceived) all at once, and that's it, fad-like.  And so it was despite certain challenges and opinions satisfying to enjoy other fixed works in the exhibition albeit with less  interest in my own documentation and more so with the activity of looking.