More on Frederick Hammersley

Wanting to connect the two keywords that I came up with for the V&A project I thought I should look more into the artist himself.

I came upon an article on the Los Angeles Review of Books website. The article was by Stefanie Sobelle where she interviewed James Glisson, one of the curators that were responsible for the exhibit “Frederick Hammersley : To Paint Without Thinking”. In the article they discussed Hammersley’s process and interests. 

After reading the article I’ve found new information that could further my ‘practice’ research. Here are some interesting points :

• “Hammersley was never an ideologue or a theorizer”. It really is his intention to make a less serious abstract work as I understood. 

• “He compares looking at paintings to eating, of all things.” This point is very interesting. Paintings are not here to be analysed or contemplated at but for us to simply savour. 

• “To Paint Without Thinking” is not about machine-learning or algorithms but more about how thinking happens behind a screen when we create art. Sometimes its not in our control. “Thinking happens out of view.”
• The way he came up with titles ( which is what drew me to his work in the first place ) is called “free-association”. According to the interview there were sheets of title strings which he used to name his works in the exhibit too. “The puns are his way to push back against the specter of oppressive rationality, to fold in some levity and humor.”
• Hammersley method or style of work is to blend system with whimsy. He would set up a system or narrow down his options and then start working and let all the thinking happens unconsciously.

I really like his approach as it would free up the burden of having to think about everything you draw.

I took this method and tried to experiment on the subject of randomness and now free-association. I will show the results in the next blog post.

…the push and pull between system and disorder, rules and spontaneity, acted as a creative engine. He lines bits of thoughts only to have them not add up, to deflect, and to play with expectations of order.