Robert Hammerstiel

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Robert Hammerstiel (born February 18, 1933 in Vršac , German  Werschetz , Kingdom of Yugoslavia ) is an Austrian painter , graphic artist and wood cutter . Hammerstiel has received international recognition through numerous awards.

Robert Hammerstiel, Austrian painter, in his studio in Pottschach (Ternitz)

life and work

Robert Hammerstiel lived as a child in the Serbian quarter of Werschetz. The family was Banat German , his father had a small bakery, but he would have preferred to be a painter and, in addition to his job, painted signs, cards and, above all, icons.

In November 1944 Robert Hammerstiel was interned with his brother Alfred and his mother (the father was in the military). He was in the following camps Zichydorf (= Plandiste), Setschanfeld (= Ducine), Molidorf (near today's Toba) and Gakovo . At times he was separated from his mother and he had to experience great hardship. Many friends and family members have passed away. He (also) almost starved to death, had severe scabies and malaria . To survive, he had to eat grass and dig for bulbs and onions in the ground at night. In Molidorf, he found wheat grains in the mice in the false floor of the attic, which saved his life.

At the end of August 1947, Robert Hammerstiel managed to escape to Lower Austria via Hungary with his mother and younger brother. There he initially worked for farmers, where homesickness and discrimination weighed heavily on him. From 1949 to 1953 he trained in a bakery in Pottschach. From 1955 he worked in the steelworks in Ternitz , mainly in the gray foundry and molding of the mold cores, a physically heavy and strenuous job in the great heat. After his hands were burned, he was transferred to the archive in 1979 to do an office job.

In addition to earning a living, Hammerstiel always drew and was an autodidact painter from an early age. His father, who was released from captivity in 1950, gave him artistic guidance and support. In addition to depicting motifs from his environment, Hammerstiel, who sees himself as a “survivor of many dead”, begins to work through his traumatic childhood experiences towards the end of the 1960s.

In 1958, at an exhibition "Talents awakened - talents discovered", Hammerstiel won a sponsorship award from the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions. From 1959 to 1961 he was able to study with Gerda Matejka-Felden in Vienna as part of several art seminars, for which he was given leave of absence in the factory, and also with her in her studio. 1963–1966 he learned in further art seminars of the trade union federation with Professor Robert Schmidt . This steers Hammerstiel's way of working on the woodcut. Further teachers of Hammerstiel are Gerhard Swoboda and August Swoboda.

In 1968 he was able to go to an art seminar in Recklinghausen and also exhibit there. In 1969 the art seminars of the trade union federation end. From around 1972 Hammerstiel occupied himself intensively with subjects from the Old and New Testaments, especially with woodcuts. In 1975 Hammerstiel attended an international art symposium near Mostar . Further invitations to international art symposia followed, in 1980 in Prilep, Macedonia and several times in Budapest.

Hammerstiel has been exhibiting in various exhibitions since 1968, initially primarily in Vienna and Lower Austria but soon also in Germany and later in other countries. Since 1974 he has exhibited very often and successfully in Berlin, and he later wrote that there is no city he loves more than Berlin.

In 1985 he was given the professional title of Professor by the Austrian Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger . Kirchschläger highly valued the art of R. Hammerstiel and had personal contact with him. In 1988, Hammerstiel took early retirement due to illness (disability pension). Since then he has worked exclusively as a freelance artist.

Hammerstiel's work is influenced by the tragic experiences of childhood. The suffering he experienced as a child is always present in his life. But for him it's not about reminiscence, but about human dignity, being human under the most adverse circumstances, driven by inner fears. He vehemently opposes the imperious in people and in society, he quietly and at the same time strongly accuses injustice and perpetual conditions of violence and terror. Hammerstiel seeks the reality behind the apparent truth, and it is hatred and cruelty that he opposes.

Hammerstiel has a special relationship with music. When he paints he usually listens to music, for example by Rachmaninov. He also made pictures for Schubert's Winterreise (1998), in which the experiences of internment were processed and which were shown in a separate exhibition and presented in a book.

A trip to New York in 1988 was decisive for Hammerstiel's new work phase. He turns to Pop Art, albeit belatedly in terms of art history ( Milton Avery , Edward Hopper ). The stay in New York becomes a clear turning point. Hammerstiel goes new artistic ways. Impressed by the shrill and glare of Manhattan, he rediscovered the color and radically simplified the forms. He presents rooms in a new way, dispensing with everything that is irrelevant. From now on, his work is characterized by lively colors and a radical, almost striking reduction of form to the essentials. With this stylistic change, he presents his topics in a new, fascinating way. Hammerstiel traveled even more often to New York, as well as several times to Pris, which became his second home.

In 2007 the 73 meter high Ringturm on Schottenring in Vienna was covered on all four sides for several months by a monumental work by Hammerstiel, which shows the stages of his life.

Since 2010 the former house of his grandparents in Vršac has served as the Robert Hammerstiel Museum. A Robert Hammerstiel Saa has been a permanent fixture in the Vojvodina State Museum in Novi Sad since 2011.

Hammerstiel lives in Pottschach , Lower Austria and is often in Vienna . On April 30, 2017, his wife, Margareta Hammerstiel, née Speringer, whom he married on April 14, 1956, died.

Exhibitions

An overview of the most important exhibitions by Hammerstiel can be found on his homepage.

Awards

Works (selection)

Works by Hammerstiel are in many important collections in Europe and overseas.

People's altar in the parish church of Pottschach, by Robert Hammerstiel
People's altar in the parish church of Pottschach
  • Triptych Evening, Night and Morning , 1977, oil on hardboard, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum , Vienna.
  • People's altar and ambo in the parish church of Pottschach , 1981; as well as the Way of the Cross and the rectory of Pottschach.
  • "Homage to the Mothers of Vojvodina" in the National Museum in Novi Sad, copy in the Rudolfsgnad Chapel.
  • Sculpture "Mothers of Vojvodina" on the main square in Werschetz, 2014

Publications (selection)

  • Woodcuts to the Gospels. Luther Verlag, Bielefeld 1978, ISBN 3-7858-0246-3 .
  • Of icons and rats. A Banat childhood 1939-1949. Vienna and Munich 1999, ISBN 3-85447-872-0 .
  • The New York Pictures. Georg van Almsick, Gronau-Epe 2000.
  • His work. Alfred Lüthy, Bern 2001.
  • Pictures of a contemporary witness. Leopold Museum, Vienna 2006.
  • Of clear and blind mirrors. Armonia Verlag, Gloggnitz 2007, ISBN 978-3-9501793-5-4 .
  • Life views. Robert Hammerstiel in conversation with Roswitha Barosch. R. Barosch Verlag, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-200-02742-8 .
  • Thoughts about art. Brandstätter Verlag, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-85033-415-0 .

Web links

Commons : Robert Hammerstiel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and blind mirrors . 2007, p. 49 .
  2. ↑ a b Robert Hammerstiel: Of icons and rats. A Banat Childhood 1939-1949 . Christian Brandstätter, Vienna 1999.
  3. ↑ Robert Hammerstiel: Of icons and rats . 1999, p. 167 .
  4. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 94 .
  5. ^ Karl Schaedel: Robert Hammerstiel and his work . In: Woodcuts to the Gospels . Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 1978, ISBN 3-7858-0246-3 , p. 5-11 .
  6. ↑ biography. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
  7. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 210 .
  8. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 223 .
  9. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 316 .
  10. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and blind mirrors . 2007, p. 327 .
  11. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 370 .
  12. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 486 .
  13. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 508 .
  14. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 590 .
  15. ^ Robert Hammerstiel | Archive | Exhibitions | Leopold Museum. Retrieved May 19, 2017 .
  16. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and blind mirrors . 2007, p. 666 .
  17. ^ Leporello. Views and insights: Robert Hammerstiel. In: ORF from February 1, 2013
  18. ↑ Hammerstiel biography. Retrieved May 15, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Burial Stranz: Part box. Retrieved December 28, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Death in the 80th year of life. Retrieved December 28, 2019 .
  21. ↑ exhibitions. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
  22. ↑ ots.at , APA-OTS : A tribute to Robert Hammerstiel's 80th birthday , October 24, 2012
  23. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 573 .
  24. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 641 .
  25. ↑ Prof. Robert Hammerstiel honorary citizen of Ternitz . Article dated February 28, 2013, accessed December 6, 2014
  26. ↑ Works owned by. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
  27. ↑ R. Hammerstiel: Of clear and of blind mirrors . 2007, p. 669 .
  28. ↑ Knicanin-Zrenjanin Cemetery (Rudolfsgnad, Banat, Serbia). Retrieved May 14, 2017 .
  29. ↑ Hammerstiel Current. Retrieved May 15, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Hammerstiel, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter, graphic artist and wood cutter
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Vršac , Kingdom of Yugoslavia