Jane Hammond facts for kids

Jane R. Hammond, born in 1950, is an American artist. She lives and works in New York City. She was inspired by the composer John Cage. She also worked with poets John Ashbery and Raphael Rubinstein. With Ashbery, she created 62 paintings based on his ideas.

About Jane Hammond

Jane always loved language. In high school, she was the editor of her literary magazine. She studied poetry and biology at Mount Holyoke College. In 1972, she earned her art degree there. Later, she studied ceramics at Arizona State University. She then received her master's degree in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

In 1977, Jane moved to New York City. She started collecting images from many different places. These included science books, children's books, and books about magic. She also gathered pictures from charts about animals and other topics. From this large collection, she chose 276 images. These became her "image bank" for her artwork.

Early Art Career

In 1989, Jane Hammond had her first solo art show. It was at a place called Exit Art in New York. Since then, her art has been shown in Spain, Sweden, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Also in 1989, she was invited to print at ULAE. She tried different printing methods. She combined lithography, silkscreen, intaglio, and collage. This helped her create the many layers seen in her unique images.

In 1993, the Cincinnati Art Museum held her first museum exhibition.

In June 1993, Jane asked poet John Ashbery for ideas for painting titles. A week later, he sent her 44 titles. By December 1994, she had used 13 of these titles. Some titles she used more than once. In 1994, some of their joint paintings were shown in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

Her Art Today

In 2003, Jane Hammond became the first woman to design the poster for the French Open tennis tournament. Her poster even appeared on the cover of Tennis Week magazine. While she is mainly a painter, Jane also works with photographs and makes prints. She has created prints at Universal Limited Art Editions and Shark's Ink.

In 2002, the New York Times newspaper wrote about Jane's art. They said she wanted to make paintings that were "as complicated, inconsistent, varied, multifaceted as you are, as I am, as life is." Jane explained that her work deals with modern times. She said, "There's a lot of information, and it's often not physical because of computers. I'm interested in how we make sense of it all." The newspaper also said her paintings were like writing, full of ideas and smart details.

The Times noted that Jane liked to use systems. For many years, she only used her collection of 276 found images in her paintings. However, since that article, Jane has explored new ways of painting. She no longer limits herself to those specific images.

Many of her artworks are inspired by dreams. For example, she created a series where butterflies are placed over maps of different countries. She describes her painting process like this:

Painting is a mix of deep thinking and hard work. For me, the time and effort I put in help me connect with my unconscious mind. The layers of paint show how long I've worked on something, not just how it feels. It's like chanting; when you spend a lot of time with a painting, special things can start to happen.

Jane Hammond's artwork "Fallen" is a large art piece. The Whitney Museum of American Art bought it in 2006. The artist has added to this work over many years. Each leaf in the piece has the name of a U.S. soldier who died in Iraq. When it was shown in 2011, it had 4455 leaves.

An exhibition called “Jane Hammond: Paper Work” showed her art on paper from 1989 to 2006. This show traveled to several museums, including the Tucson Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Art. A book with essays and an interview with Jane was published for the exhibition.

In 2007, Jane Hammond's painting "All Souls (Piedras Negras)" was sold for $75,000 at an auction.

In 2015, Jane spoke at a conference about drawing with other artists. She is also a Governor for Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She was a resident artist there in 1997 and taught there in 2005.

In 2019, Jane Hammond received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which is a special award for artists.

Jane Hammond's art can be found in many important museum collections. These include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Images for kids

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  Masindi - detail

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  Fallen, 2004
  This artwork is made from foam, cotton, paper, paint, and other materials. It measures 9" x 130" x 89".
  The Whitney Museum of American Art acquired it in 2006.