Published by The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Edited by James Glisson. Text by Alan Phenix, Kathleen Shields, Nancy Zastudil.
However, their elegant simplicity belies the complex system behind their creation. Thanks to sketchbooks, notebooks and color swatches reproduced in this catalog, the artist’s beautiful documentation of his multistep way of working out compositions is on full view. These artworks and archival materials show that rather than an all-at-once creative act, Hammersley’s method was step-by-step and structured by rules. Essays by Alan Phenix, a conservation scientist, as well as by Kathleen Shields and Nancy Zastudil, who manage the artist’s foundation, bring to light new scientific findings about his paintings.
