Cyril Hamersma - Artist

Cyril Hamersma - Artist
Hamersma - Artist at Work

Cyril Hamersma - Artist - 1919 to 1994

Also a prolific writer and inventor . . .
Born 1919, London
Painted from an early age
Served in Royal Army Medical
Corps 1939-45
Taught art to fellow prisoners in Stalag VIIIB
Caring jobs
throughout his life to make ends meet
Married and with four daughters
Died 1994, Essex
This man could paint. See his self-portraits: 1965, 1983, 1992. See his landscapes, 'The Cornfield' and his nudes. He also understood the value of abstract art in touching people's awareness and he conveyed ideas through images which provoked enlightenment, pleasure and emotion in the viewers. Hamersma’s artwork regularly focused on the simple things in life: a juicy red apple; a welcoming pot of tea; a freshly fried egg – the basics of which he was, along with many thousands of men, deprived for four years as a prisoner of war in Germany in World War II. Abstract explorations were similarly derivative. He was fascinated by ‘the line’ in art. Where does one object finish and another begin, when you look at them as a two dimensional image? And every object is made up of cells, minuscule cells invisible to the naked eye but Hamersma exploded ideas and looked further into them, painting and drawing ‘cells’; images made up of cells; ‘metaphysical cell structures’ which led him to invent the Squircle. It was his Squircle work that became the pinnacle. “The Squircle is Art, Science and Religion – together in one image,” he said in January 1994. “Light invites everyone to join the fight against the darkness. Our hearts and eyes are drawn together to eliminate and squeeze,” he wrote in March 1994

Friday 26 October 2007

1970s

In 1970 Hamersma bought a Victorian house in Halstead, Essex and turned the front room - which faced the main road - into a Gallery. With white painted walls and spotlights he displayed his work for the general public to come in and browse. The space gave him freedom to experiment further with shape, shadow, colour and reflection.
Further house moves involved abandoning ideas and starting afresh: always an inspiration to him, new surroundings being like a fresh canvas and a palette of bright wet colours. Painting remained his first love.
Experimentation with collage perpetuated Hamersma's fascination with 'cell structures' and during the 1970s he took these ideas to some extraordinary depths.

The Metaphysical Cell Structure was the predecessor of the Squircle.


1 comment:

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