3120
Winterauktionen 24.–25.11.2023
Hammerstiel, Robert
1933 Vršac - 2020 Neunkirchen.
«Landschaft. Viertel unter d. Wienerwald (landscape. District by the Wienerwald)».
Oil on canvas. Monogrammed lower right. Verso signed, dated 1996 and titled. Verso on the back of the frame a printed label from the Galerie Georg van Almsick, Gronau-Epe, as well as remains of an old label.
H 30, W 40 cm (support). Gallery frame.
A turning point that triggered the emergence of a new phase in Hammerstiel's work was his trip to New York in 1988. Manhattan inspired the artist with its unusualness and garishness and moved him to rediscover colours and radically simplify his figural language. From then on, he renounced everything incidental in his painting. Although this landscape painting of his adopted hometown of Ternitz in Lower Austria is rare in terms of its subject matter and concentrates entirely on the landscape without Hammerstiel's typical foreground figures, it nevertheless has everything that characterises the artist's main work: shapes reduced to the essential and strong, vivid colours. It is a very personal homage to the place where he lived for many years.
Authentication: We would like to thank Mr Robert F. Hammerstiel, son of the artist and director of the Robert-Hammerstiel-Archive, Vienna, for the authentication via e-mail, based on photos, 14.04.2023.
We would like to thank Dr. Frederik Lehner, Galerie Lehner, Vienna, for the kind remarks via e-mail, based on photographs, 13.04.2023.

Condition report