Frederick Hammersley first gained critical recognition in 1959 as one of the "Four Abstract Classicists" along with Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, and John McLaughlin, whose paintings were featured that year in an exhibition of the same name. Curated by critic Jules Langsner and organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the exhibition opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and Queen's University in Belfast, Ireland.