Jane R. Hammond (b. 1950) is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. She was influenced by the late composer John Cage. She collaborated with the poet John Ashbery, making 62 paintings based on titles suggested by Ashbery; she also collaborated with the poet Raphael Rubinstein.
Background
Hammond studied poetry and biology at Mount Holyoke College before earning her BA in art in 1972. After studying ceramics at Arizona State University, she received her MFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1977, she moved to New York and began compiling images from instructional or scientific manuals, children's books, books on puppetry and magic, as well as charts on alchemy, animals, religion, and phrenology. From this collection she culled 276 images that functioned as her image bank for subject matter.
Early career
In 1989, Hammond received her first one-person exhibition at the New York alternative space, Exit Art. Since 1989, Hammond has exhibited internationally in Spain, Sweden, Italy, and Holland.
In 1989, Hammond was invited by Bill Goldston to print at ULAE. After experimenting with monoprints, she turned to a combination of lithography, silkscreen, intaglio, and collage to achieve the complex layering of her trademark images.
Contemporary work
In 2003, Hammond became the first woman to create the poster for the French Open tennis tournament; her poster became the cover of Tennis Week magazine. Primarily a painter, Hammond also works with photographs, and makes prints. She made prints at ULAE (Universal Limited Art Editions) and at Shark's Ink. She is represented by (among others) Galerie Lelong in New York and the Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle.
According to a 2002 article in the New York Times, “Ms. Hammond [aims] to make paintings 'as complicated, inconsistent, varied, multifaceted as you are, as I am, as life is.... I think my work deals very directly with the time that we live in,' Ms. Hammond said. 'There's a surfeit of information, increasingly bodiless because of the computer, and I bring to this an interest in how meaning is constructed'.... The best metaphor for the method behind her rollicking, erudite, street-smart, angst-ridden, encyclopedic paintings is writing."[1]
The Times spoke of Hammond's "predilection for systems. For decades it has been her practice to limit all her paintings to mix-and-match selections from a total of 276 found images." Since this article was written, Hammond has moved in new directions; she no longer limits her painting to a body of found images.
Many of her works are based on dreams, such as a recent series of works in which butterflies are laid over maps of various countries. She explains her approach to painting thus:
Painting is a cross between high philosophy and cement work. My biggest way of relating to this concept of time and labor is that it is an entry point for reaching the unconscious. The layers of paint have more to do with duration than texture. I see it as a function of time, like the idea of chanting. Certain things can begin to happen because you're with the painting for long periods of time.
Ongoing, High density foam, cotton, muslin, cotton thread, foam core, hand-made cotton rag paper, archival digital inkjet prints on archival paper, acrylic paint, gouache, matt medium, Jade glue, fiberglass strand and sumi ink
9" x 130" x 89"
Acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art, 2006
Hammond's work "Fallen" was first displayed at the artist's one-person exhibition at Galerie Lelong in New York in March of 2005. The sculpture was accompanied by a wall text which read, "Each unique handmade leaf is inscribed by the artist with the name of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. The exhibition begins with 1511 leaves."
Her exhibition "paper work" will be on a nationwide tour from 2006-2009.
External Links
JaneHammondArtist.com
Bomb Magazine article
ArtForum Magazine
Pace Prints
Weatherspoon Art Museum
AskArt.com
ArtCyclopedia.com
ArtFacts.net
ArtNet.com
ArtPrice.com />
Galerie Lelong- For images and biography
Notes
- ^ New York Times, October 13, 2002, section 2, p. 35