Less on Lesson 14

FREDERICK HAMMERSLEY, 1919-2009

While Hammersley explored a range of media and approaches to making art during the 1960s, including drawings, collage, prints, mosaics, and photography, his painting production decreased in the late 1960s and in 1968 he made no paintings at all. In the same year, he moved to Albuquerque to teach at the University of New Mexico. There he was introduced to Art1, one of the earliest programs for making art using a computer, and from late 1968 to early 1970 made hundreds of computer-generated drawings. In 1969 he wrote about his experience in an essay published in the journal…

In 1971, recharged with ideas from these other activities, Hammersley resigned from the University of New Mexico to devote himself full time to making art. The next decade was one of his most prolific as he produced a large number of geometric paintings—mostly square, based on an implicit grid, and of varying scale but no more than 45 by 45 inches—as well as numerous prints and drawings, thanks in part to a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA grants, and invitations from Tamarind Institute.