In 1959, curator and critic Jules Langsner brought together work by hard-edge painters Karl Benjamin, John McLaughlin, Frederick Hammersley and Lorser Feitelson in a historic exhibition at LACMA titled the “Four Abstract Classacists.” Frederick Hammersley shed light on the originations of the term “abstract classicists” in his oral history, commissioned by L.A. Louver in 2003 and conducted by Lawrence Weschler, Douglas Dreishpoon and Peter Goulds:

“When the four of us had the show in ’59, we had meetings about what to call ourselves.  And I was embarrassed.  Well, it’s embarrassing, what do you call yourself?  Well, you have a job and it’s called such and such.  That’s helpful…  So we had the meeting and it ended up we were going to call ourselves Abstract Classicists…  Rico [Lebrun] made a remark.  “A classic work is everything is revealed.  A baroque is revealed, concealed.”  And I thought that’s very interesting.  Very Giottoish.  Classic.  Everything is up there.  No shadows.” – Frederick Hammersley

(extracted from the transcriptions by UCLA’s Oral History Program)

See work by these 4 artists in a re-staging of this seminal exhibition at LACMA, on view through June 29. For more information and a selection of works on view, visit LACMA’s website.

To learn about Hammersley’s rich exhibition history at L.A. Louver, visit our Gallery History (THEN) page for a complete listing of all his shows.

IMAGE: Jules Langser, Karl Benjamin, John McLaughlin, Frederick Hammersley, Lorser Feitelson, 1959, Frederick Hammersly: An Oral History, Volume 2