An Enduring Relationship
L.A. Louver and Frederick Hammersley
L.A. Louver founder Peter Goulds, a British transplant to the sunny climes of California, established the gallery in 1976, its creative title a result of Goulds’ desire not to attach his own name to, in his own words, “something that might fail”. He took inspiration from the louvered windows he’d lived with in college at UCLA and their similarities to works by Marcel Duchamp (Fresh Widow and The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even). Goulds had first visited Hammersley's studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the 1970s and was immediately taken with the artist and his work. Hammersley became one of the initial artist’s added to the gallery's roster and his first of many exhibitions there was held in 1978.
All four paintings in the present sale were originally acquired from L.A. Louver and three were exhibited in the 2017 retrospective Frederick Hammersley Paintings and Works on Paper, an expansive and immersive show of 98 works spanning the artist’s career. L.A. Louver was instrumental in introducing Hammersley's oeuvre to a broader audience and they continue to represent his work alongside a roster of other important creators including Alison Saar, David Hockney, Ken Price, Dale Chihuly, and Deborah Butterfield.