PBS art series COLORES!

The work and vision of Willy Bo Richardson featured on the award winning PBS art series ¡COLORES!

For over 20 years ¡COLORES! has explored music, the arts, history and culture of the American southwest. Intimate footage and interviews allows viewers to observe the artists at work and watch their process as they transform inspiration into art.

PBS Arts unifies communities nationwide, represents diverse audiences and connects through a passion for dance, music, theater and more. PBS serves as America’s largest stage and spotlights content from the contemporary to the classics, ensuring the arts are accessible to all with rich, educational programming.

History and Production

¡COLORES! originated in 1989. Included in the archives are programs on Lincoln cowboy painter Gary Morton, photographic historian Beaumont Newhall (1908-1993), and Santa Clara painter Pablita Velarde (1918-2006. Other featured masterpieces included Reggio’s film Koyaanisqatsi, the Victor Higgins painting Winter Funeral, the John Nichols novel The Milagro Beanfield War, and T.C. Cannon’s painting Collector #5.

The Producer of PBS art series COLORES! is Tara Walch; Unit Coordinator is Kathy Wimmer. Executive Producer is Michael Kamins. Major funding for ¡COLORES! is provided in part by Frederick Hammersley Foundation.

Frederick Hammersley

Hammersley (1919-2009) spent most of his formative years and early career in California. There he garnered a reputation as an important abstract painter in the west coast, and began a prominent career in geometric hard-edge painting in the late 1950s. Between 1949 and 1950 he taught himself lithography and produced an innovative group of prints where he systematically explored the properties and interactions of color, line, value, and texture on various papers and fabric. In 1968, Hammersley moved to Albuquerque and accepted a teaching appointment at the University of New Mexico. During this time, he was introduced to Art1, a newly developed computer program that enabled artists to create artworks using a mainframe machine and line printer. The computer drawings he made, which he sometimes called prints, are some of the earliest instances of computer art. Hammersley resigned from teaching in 1971 but continued to live and work in Albuquerque, receiving a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973 and NEA grants in 1975 and 1977. He continued to paint, draw, and make prints, including a number of lithographs at Tamarind Institute, until his death in 2009.

Watch Full Episode Here: “Willy Bo Richardson, The Impressionists, Regional Theater, Jack Ross”