New Acquisition: Harmony Hammond’s Emerging Cross I

Harmony Hammond (American, b. 1944) is one of the most influential artists in the Feminist Art movement of the late 20th century. In 1972, she was the founder of the first women’s cooperative gallery A.I.R and has written critical feminist literature over the years, from establishing the journal Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art & Politics and to writing Wrappings: Essays on Feminism Art & the Martial Arts. Her works’ crux is materiality, as she applies textiles, grommets, leather, and hair to her abstracted and multimedia works. She uses these everyday materials to create commentary on both political and personal issues such as restraint and agency.

As part of Davidson College’s Buying Art For Davidson course last spring, I had the opportunity to see this work in person at Alexander Gray Associates. For our class, my fellow students and I had to propose artists and artworks that we deemed would fill gaps or holes in our collection. Harmony Hammond was one of the artists Skylar Linker ’25 put forward. As a class we were struck by the queer and feminist themes and desired for a work of hers to be in our collection. The materiality and leather-like surface of her cross series were of special interest for our class.

As part of the Buying Art course, we had the opportunity to travel to New York and go around to each gallery to see the pieces we had picked out as a class. We visited the Alexander Gray gallery and saw a variety of Hammond’s works. Although we were incredibly interested in purchasing, we learned that the Van Every/Smith Galleries were already in talks to purchase a Hammond work. Therefore, we did not purchase as a class, but were thrilled when the galleries announced their acquisition of Emerging Cross I through the Dr. Joan Huntley Art Acquisition Endowment.

Dr. Joan C. Huntley created an Art Acquisitions Endowment that supports the addition of new works into the Galleries’ collection to enhance curriculum. Works are recommended by the gallery director and members of the Art Collection Advisory Committee, finalized with a majority vote of the committee. Emerging Cross I was purchased using the 2024-2025 proceeds from the Joan C. Huntley Art Acquisition Fund.

I am so grateful that the Joan C. Huntley Art Fund purchased a work chosen and beloved by students, staff, and the committee, and I look forward to seeing it used in class for years to come.

– Sarah Willoughby ’25

Sources:

“Harmony Hammond.” National Museum of Women in the Arts. Accessed March 22, 2025. https://nmwa.org/art/artists/harmony-hammond/.

“Narrative Biography.” Harmony Hammond. Accessed March 22, 2025. http://www.harmonyhammond.com/narrative_bio.html.