Viktor Hammer (painter)

Viktor Carl Hammer (born December 9, 1882 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary , † July 10, 1967 in Lexington , USA ) was an Austrian type designer , painter , sculptor and graphic artist who emigrated to the United States in 1939. There his name was known as Victor Hammer .

Live and act

Hammer began his architecture studies at the age of 15 with Camillo Sitte and in 1898 switched to Christian Griepenkerl and Heinrich Lefler (painting) and Hans Bitterlich (sculpture) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna , where he became friends with Richard Gerstl and Konrad Mautner and the he graduated ten years later. At the XXI. Exhibition of the Hagenbund Christmas 1906 he took part as a guest. In 1909 Hammer received a travel grant from the kk academy. On the XLV. Exhibition of the Association of Austrian Artists Secession, Vienna (November – December 1913), along with larger works, he also presented some bookplates . The inventory of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen lists a painting by him under No. 8760 with the title Lady in the Armchair , which was created in 1914.

During the First World War he was a member of the Austro-Hungarian War Press Quarters (from October 20, 1915 to November 1918) and worked as a war painter on the Russian, Italian and Turkish theater of war. He then turned increasingly to graphics and typography and discovered his ability as a book and font artist. In the XLVIII. Exhibition of the Association of Austrian Artists Secession, Vienna (September to November 1917) showed many of his works, mainly portraits. From October 28 to November 21, 1926 he took part in the XXXII. Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists of Moravia on the subject of the Vienna Secession in Göding ( Hodonín ). In 1934 he designed and built a chapel in Kolbsheim (Alsace), which he designed as a woodcut.

From 1922 he ran the Stamperia del Santuccio in Florence with a historical hand press and from 1936 the school for free and strict arts in Grundlsee . There he worked as a portraitist and landscape painter and ran a painting school in the "Hammerhaus" in Archkogl during the summer months. On September 8, 1937, a Hofmannsthal bust made by him with the inscription "Hugo von Hofmannsthal for fame and commemoration MCMXXXVII" was unveiled in the vestibule to the Faistauer foyer of the Kleiner Festspielhaus Salzburg . This Hofmannsthal bust was removed when the Kleiner Festspielhaus was remodeled in May 1939 at the instigation of the National Socialists and disappeared.

On January 1, 1938, Hammer received an extraordinary professorship for painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna . But on the day Austria was annexed to the German Reich on March 13, 1938, he was temporarily suspended and removed from his service on October 1, 1938. On July 26, 1939, he was retired by the ordinance on the reorganization of the Austrian civil service in accordance with Section 6 with effect from August 31. One of his students was the painter and graphic artist Emmerich Millim . Hammer lived in St. Martin iI at the time and was a member of the Innviertel artists' guild . In 1938 he edited Otto Reicher's book Tauernreise by hand in the Stamperia del Santuccio .

Even before his retirement in 1939, Hammer had applied to leave the United States, where he had been given a teaching position for a year at Wells College in Aurora , New York State . He did not return to Europe after a year, but continued teaching at Wells College until 1948. In 1943 he developed his most famous typeface, American Uncial, which he also printed with a hand press, and founded the Wells College Press. In 1945 he moved to Lexington, Kentucky , where he lived for the rest of his life. From 1948 until his retirement in 1953, he was visiting professor at Transylvania University . In Kentucky he designed the official Louisville flag , which was in use until 2003.

He designed a number of typefaces :

• 1923 Hammer Uncial, Klingspor Brothers
• 1930 Samson, private publication
• 1937 Pindar, private publication
• 1941 Aurora
• 1943 American Uncial, Dearborn TF
• 1953 American Uncial (revised), Gebr. Klingspor, Linotype
• 1958 Andromaque, Anvil Press
• 1970 Hammer Samson Uncial (revised by R. Hunter Middleton)
• 1980 Andromaque (revised by R. Hunter Middleton)

Hammer was initially married to Rosi Rossbach. The two had two children. After the death of his first wife, he married Carolyn Reading in 1955.

Likelihood of confusion

Viktor Hammer did not use his middle name in Austria. There was therefore a media mix-up with the Viennese sculptor Viktor Josef Hammer (1913–1986), who also only used his first name.

Publications

• Type design in relation to language & to the art of the punch cutter. Aurora, New York 1947.
• A dialogue on the Uncial between a paeongrapher and a printer. Aurora, New York 1946.
• Explanatory notes on the Pindar script. Salzburg 1938.
• Victor Hammer. Graz 1936.

literature

• Sebastian Carter: Twentieth century type designers. New York, 1995, pp. 84-87.
• David Consuegra: American type design & designers. New York, 2004, pages 154 and 155.
• WG Reading: Victor Hammer's Unical Types. In: American Proprietary Typefaces. 1998, pages 134-148.
• Paul Evans Holbrook: An Introduction to Victor & Carolyn Hammer with a Listing of the Books Printed at Their Several Presses. Lexington, KY: The Anvil Press, 1995.
• Victor Hammer. An artist's testament. Lexington, The Anvil Press, 1988. (with portrait).
• A. Winklbauer: Hammer, Viktor . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 68, de Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-598-23035-6 , p. 523 f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Digital library of the Belvedere Research Center
2. ↑ The KK Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1892–1917. ( goobipr2.uni-weimar.de ) accessed on December 16, 2014
3. ↑ XLV. Exhibition of the Association of Austrian Artists Secession  - Internet Archive
4. ↑ Walter Reichel: "Press work is propaganda work" - Media Administration 1914-1918: The War Press Quarter (KPQ) . Communications from the Austrian State Archives (MÖStA), special volume 13, Studienverlag, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5582-1 , p. 180.
5. ↑ Österreichisches Heeresmuseum (Ed.): Catalog of the war picture gallery of the Austrian Army Museum , Vienna 1923, p. 15
6. ↑ XLVIII. Exhibition of the Association of Austrian Artists Secession, Vienna  - Internet Archive
7. ^ Catalog of the Czech National Library (Czech).
8. ↑ Viktor Hammer , in: Website of the Grundlsee community
9. ↑ Edda Fuhrich, Gisela Prossnitz: The Salzburg Festival. Your story in dates, testimonies and pictures. Volume 1. 1920-945. Residenz, Salzburg, Vienna 1990, p. 208 .; quoted in: Riccardo Concetti: The correspondence between Hugo von Hoffmannsthal and Robert Michel 1898–1929. Historical-critical edition. Two volumes. Volume 2. Diss., Vienna 2003.
10. ↑ Personal files, ordinance on the reorganization of the Austrian civil service of May 31, 1938, Austrian State Archives (BBV, AdR02 G-Haz)
11. ↑ Anette C. Dißlin: Victor Hammer and his Uncials, essay. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ↑ Victor Hammer , in: Website of the Klingspor Museum (PDF; 480 kB).
13. ↑ Martin Pollner: Two Viennese artists mistaken for one another , in: Wiener Geschichtsblätter , ed. Association for the History of the City of Vienna, 72nd year, Issue 1, 2017, p. 49 f.