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Widder Auktionen
139
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Robert Hammerstiel*
See original version (German)
139
-
Robert Hammerstiel*
See original version (German)
Estimate €150 - €300
Voluntary lot
Description
Robert Hammerstiel*
(Werschetz 1933 – 2020 Neunkirchen)
Scene from Pushkin’s *The Queen of Spades*, 1989
woodcut on paper, 34 x 26 cm
signed Hammerstiel, dated 89
inscribed ‘Handdruck, Pique Dame, 3, E.A.’
ESTIMATE €150 – €300
STARTING PRICE €150
Robert Hammerstiel grew up as the child of a Banat Swabian family in the Serbian quarter of Werschetz. His father ran a bakery and painted in his spare time. In November 1944, Robert Hammerstiel was interned in several camps alongside his brother Alfred and his mother (his father was in the military) under appalling conditions. In August 1947, Robert Hammerstiel managed to escape with his mother and brother via Hungary to Lower Austria. From 1949 to 1953, he learnt a trade at a bakery in Pottschach. From 1955, he worked at the steelworks in Ternitz. After suffering burns to his hands, he was transferred to the archives in 1979. Hammerstiel had been drawing and painting as a self-taught artist from an early age. In addition to depicting motifs from his surroundings, Hammerstiel, who saw himself as a ‘survivor of many dead’, began to come to terms with his traumatic childhood experiences in the late 1960s. In 1958, Hammerstiel won a sponsorship award from the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions at the exhibition ‘Talents Awakened – Talents Discovered’. From 1959 to 1961, he attended several seminars with Gerda Matejka-Felden in Vienna. Between 1963 and 1966, he attended further art seminars organised by the trade union federation under Robert Schmidt, who introduced Hammerstiel to woodcut. Other teachers included Gerhard and August Swoboda. In 1968, he took part in an art seminar in Recklinghausen and exhibited his work there. From around 1972, Hammerstiel began to explore biblical themes, particularly in woodcuts. From 1975, he took part in several international art symposia, near Mostar, in Prilep, Macedonia, and on several occasions in Budapest. Since 1968, Hammerstiel has exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 1985, he was awarded the title of professor by the Federal President, Rudolf Kirchschläger. In 1988, Hammerstiel took early retirement but remained active as a freelance artist. A trip to New York in 1988 proved decisive for the subsequent new phase of Hammerstiel’s work. He turned to Pop Art – belatedly, in art-historical terms. He rediscovered colour and radically simplified forms. He depicted spaces in a new way, dispensing with all incidental elements. From then on, his work was characterised by vivid colour and a radical, striking reduction of form. In 2007, the Ringturm in Vienna was covered by a monumental work by Hammerstiel depicting the key stages of his life. Other artists and styles: Gerda Matejka-Felden, Robert Schmitt, Gerhard Swoboda, Vienna School, Banat Germans, internment camp, woodcut, Pop Art, stencil figures, Leopold Museum, Albertina Vienna, Ringturm Project, Werschetz Museum, Grand Gold Medal of Honour, Künstlerhaus, Herbert Boeckl, Wolfgang Hutter, Vienna Secession, colour etching, 20th century
PLEASE NOTE:
The purchase price comprises the highest bid plus the buyer’s premium, VAT and, where applicable, the artists’ resale rights fee and platform fee. In the case of standard taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13 per cent (20 per cent for photographs) is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer’s premium and the platform fee.
The buyer’s premium amounts to 28 per cent in the case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.
See original version (German)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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