Finding aid for the Frederick Hammersley sketchbooks, prints, notes, and working materials, 1948-1980 2013.M.33
Annette Leddy
Special Collections
2014
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Frederick Hammersley sketchbooks, prints, notes, and working materials
Creator:
Hammersley, Frederick, 1919-2009
Identifier/Call Number: 2013.M.33
Physical Description:
6.5 Linear Feet
(7 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1948-1980
Abstract: A set of sketchbooks, notebooks, lithographs, notes, and working materials by California hard-edge abstract painter, Frederick
Hammersley.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
Arrangement
Arranged by type of material in rough chronological order.
Preferred Citation
Frederick Hammersley sketchbooks, prints, notes, and working materials, 1948-1980, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles,
Accession no. 2013.M.33.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2013m33
Processing History
The collection was processed and described by Annette Leddy in 2013. Daniel Powazek enhanced description for the Sketchbook
series in 2023.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Frederick Hammersley Foundation in 2013.
Publication Rights
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Related Archival Materials
Scope and Content of Collection
Hammerley's hard-edge aesthetic and precise working method appear in a range of media, including notes and lists, sketches
in pencil or paint, lithographs, and computer prints. The sketchbooks, notebooks and paint sample charts provide meticulous
technical details outlining the materials and processes used for nearly every painting Hammersley produced and document the
formal experimentation that preceded many of his paintings. An early lithography project from 1949-50 and set of test prints
from the Computer Drawings series of 1968-69, as well as his copious notes on potential titles for his paintings, reveal other
facets of his methodical serial formal explorations. The collection also includes a small un-stretched canvas that is considered
Hammersley's first hunch painting.
Biographical/Historical Note
One of the founding members of hard-edge abstraction, Frederick Hammersley was born in !919 in Salt Lake City and moved with
his family to Idaho and San Francisco. He studied art at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles from 1940-42, and from
1946-47, serving from 1942-45 as an army sargeant in World War II, stationed in Paris. From 1945-46 he studied at the Ecole
des Beaux Arts. After completing his degree at Chouinard, Hammersley continued his studies at Jepson Art Institute from 1947-50.
Hammersley was an art instructor for more than twenty years. At the same time, he explored a range of media, including oil
painting, watercolor, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, mixed media and computer drawings. He first gained critical
recognition in 1959 in a show at Los Angeles County Museum of Art titled
Four Abstract Classicists. In the catalog for that show, the critic Jules Langsner first used the term "hard-edge" to describe the painters' use of
flat, colored shapes with defined edges.
Within the media of painting, Hammersely had three principal series: hunch paintings, which were developed intuitively from
an initial shape; organic paintings, composed of curving, hand-drawn shapes outlined in pencil and filled in with color; and
geometric paintings, based on a grid, in which complexity is acheived through extensive development of minor variations on
a theme. Each geometric and organic painting is assigned a title chosen from pages of phrases Hammersley recorded in a stream
of consciousness process in response to a completed canvas. He felt that the titles were an integral part of the work and
also increased the viewer's accessibility to the paintings.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, Hammersley's work enjoyed resurgent critical interest and a degree of commercial success. He died
in 2009.
Digitized Material
A selected sketchbook was digitized in 2023 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2013m33_1a4d6ac91792c8a3efd9bb27ccbe4847
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Computer drawings -- California -- 20th century
Lithographs -- California -- 20th century
Painting, Abstract -- California -- Los Angeles
Artists -- California -- Los Angeles
Sketchbooks -- California -- 20th century
Hammersley, Frederick, 1919-2009
Sketchbooks,
circa 1959-1980
Scope and Contents
Twelve sketchbooks containing preparatory sketches and paintings, often thumbnail size, with detailed lists of pigments and
mixing instructions. Note that some are labeled "painting notebook" and others "notebook," but the kind of work they contain
is consistent. Sketchbooks were titled by Hammersley. One sketchbook title devised by cataloger based on text written on first
page.
box 1, folder 1
Paintings book #1,
1959-1961
box 1, folder 2
Painting notebook #1,
circa 1959-circa 1961
box 1, folder 3
Painting notebook #2,
circa 1959-circa 1961
box 1, folder 4
Painting notebook #3,
circa 1961
box 1, folder 5
[Sketchbook: Los Angeles, Oct 1964],
circa 1964
[Sketchbook: Los Angeles, Oct 1964]
box 2, folder 1
Painting notebook #3,
1974
box 2, folder 3
Paintings book #4,
circa 1980
box 2, folder 5
Windfall,
no is yes,
circa 1973
Scope and Contents
Two separate series contained in the same notebook, with
Windfall beginning from the recto and
no is yes beginning from the verso.
box 2, folder 6
Titles,
undated
Scope and Contents
Thick file of paper with possible titles for artworks listed in the artist's tiny handwriting, often accompanied by thumbnail
drawings.
box 3
Lithographs,
1948-1950
Scope and Contents
A series of circa 100 lithographs, typically 4" x 4", and arranged by the artist in groupings numbered 5, 10, 15, 20, 25,
30, 35, 40. At the end of the sequence are several lithographs labeled "seconds" and then detailed notes covering numerous
pages in the artist's handwriting.
box 4
Hunch painting,
September 15, 1950
Scope and Contents
A small unstretched canvas that is considered Hammersley's first hunch painting.
box 5
Computer drawings,
1968-1969
Scope and Contents
Circa 200 test print computer drawings, comprised of complex symbol patterns printed on computer paper.
box 6
Paint sample charts,
1979, undated
Scope and Contents
Sixty-five color charts painted on 8" x 10" paper, with captions in the artist's hand detailing pigment mixtures.
box 7
Hand made box,
circa 1948
Scope and Contents
Box made by the artist to house his lithography project, which is now housed separately in Box 3.
