PAST EXHIBITION

Hammer Projects: Terry Haggerty

June 15, 2007—January 6, 2008

Terry Haggerty’s vibrant wall paintings conjure nostalgic associations from the mustard yellow and avocado décor of the 1960s and 1970s, to optical art, to the precise lines of sugar icing on pastries. He combines humorous and historical references to form abstract compositions that electrify and manipulate the space around them. Haggerty applies multiple coats of paint to create sleek surfaces and utilizes simple lines which, when viewed together, create masterful geometries that seem to blend and curve each wall.

With his new wall installation, devised especially for the Hammer Museum, Terry Haggerty has created a piece that expands the scope of his abstract pictorial language; he has achieved a new synthesis of painted optical illusion and actual spatial experience. Exploiting the illusory qualities of painting to the fullest, he skillfully creates an impression of movement upon the wall surfaces, and relying on the perceptual motor skills of the viewer, his wall painting also conveys a sense of movement within the architecture itself when seen from different points of view. The spectator is given the impression of being drawn behind the painted surfaces, which seem like relief works protruding into the space. The expansion and transference of his familiar pictorial structures into this new architectural dimension give Haggerty’s latest work a distinct and remarkable spatial presence.

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