Robert Hammerstiel Figurative Paintings

Born in 1933 into a Banat German family from Yugoslavia, Hammerstiel learned the harshness of life in a brutal way at a young age: together with his mother and brother, he was interned in various camps for three years. In 1947 they managed to escape to Austria where Hammerstiel worked in steelworks in Ternitz. Adversely affected by adverse working conditions, he moved to the archive office there at the end of the 1970s. Like his father, who worked as an icon painter in addition to his profession as a baker, Hammerstiel drew and painted on an audio-didactic basis and primarily to come to terms with his traumatic experiences. In the form of various art seminars organised by the trade union federation, over a period of about ten years, he succeeded in developing his artistic skills and learning new techniques. His teachers at the time included Gerda Matejka-Felden, Gerhard and August Swoboda, as well as Robert Schmidt, who introduced Hammerstiel to the art of woodcutting. At the beginning of the 1970s, he approached biblical themes with his newly acquired technique. Since 1972 Hammerstiel has exhibited his works at numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad. In 1985 he was awarded the title of professor by the then Austrian Federal President. The year 1988 marked a significant turning point in the artist's life: on the one hand, Hammerstiel took early retirement and, on the other, after a stay in New York, he turned to the painting style of Pop Art. This was accompanied by a new use of bright colours and a drastic reduction to the essential. The completely anonymous depiction of people in the paintings was particularly influential in this new creative period. From this time on, study trips took him to the most diverse countries in the world. In 2006 the Ringturm in Vienna was completely covered with four murals by Hammerstiel. Three years later, an exhibition focusing on the artist's graphic work was shown at the Leopold Museum. As a highlight, Hammerstiel's cycle of works entitled "Winterreise" from the 1990s was shown, which was created in reference to the song cycle of the same name by Franz Schubert...