The Black Leaf 1976

Harmony Hammond made this brooding painting, ‘The Black Leaf,’ with thick layers of dark, textural pigment. Imagine her in the studio, wrestling with this form, building it up bit by bit. I can see her, coaxing the paint across the surface, a sculptor of color and mass. There is a real tension here in the title itself, between something organic and alive and something that is heavy, dead, and man-made. Hammond's work often explores the intersection of abstract form and feminist concerns. The rough, almost furry surface and compressed oval form reminds me of a scarred, wounded thing, a kind of material presence that feels simultaneously present and withdrawn. The color palette of blacks and browns absorbs the light. The painting becomes a site of inquiry, a space where the artist and viewer can grapple with questions of materiality, form, and meaning. The energy of the painting resonates long after the artist’s hand has left it.