Middle East 1964

Curator: Before us, we have Frederick Hammersley's 1964 acrylic on canvas, "Middle East". Editor: My initial reaction is a visual puzzle, a landmass seen through shifting sands and deceptive mirages. Curator: That’s an interesting observation. I'm drawn to the relationship between the forms; notice how they engage without clear delineation, creating a spatial ambiguity characteristic of Hard-edge painting. Consider the structural interplay between the violet form on the lower left and the brown area above, stabilized by surrounding warmer hues. Editor: It's the color palette for me: somewhat muted, yet those stark jolts of bright violet, cadmium red and brilliant yellow electrify things, they kind of dance across that desert backdrop you described. I'm imagining someone traveling through arid landscapes, these splashes might echo intense heat and unexpected bursts of oasis life. It plays havoc on the expected color dynamics! Curator: Hammersley worked deliberately. His style, sometimes called “Hunch painting," involves an intuitive decision-making process regarding shape and color—guided, as the name suggests, by internal hunches that he trusted explicitly during his compositional planning. There is little accidental and the results show. Editor: And perhaps that explains the name too? Is it connected geographically to the middle east itself, I wonder, or simply some kind of deeper abstract representation of the region's soul. It almost radiates some internal emotional drama in a way that seems like a cultural mirroring. I could equally interpret the artist’s hunches being translated visually to mine. Is this abstraction by design? I would like to suggest it’s a resounding "Yes!" Curator: Such subjective impressions, though valid, divert from critical structural evaluation, yet perhaps his hunches align! It is a beautiful illustration of controlled versus spontaneous color coordination within constrained perimeters of style, thought, medium and presentation. Editor: Exactly. Thank you, you've turned up some fascinating information.