Robert Hammerstiel (18 February 1933 – 23 November 2020) was an Austrian painter and engraver. His works are influenced by Serbian icon painting, wood-cut engraving and pop art. Hammerstiel was internationally recognized and received numerous awards. His home town installed a museum dedicated to his art.
Hammerstiel was born in Werschetz/Vršac, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in a family of German expatriates. His father, Anton Hammerstiel, was a baker who also painted icons; his mother was Therese Hammerstiel, née Schiff. He attended German and Serbian primary schools: 6 Towards the end of World War II, the Germans were expelled. Hammerstiel was deported to Zichydorf internment camp; his mother to a different camp: 6 In 1947, he escaped with his mother and brother, first to Hungary where they lived from charity. They moved further to Austria. In Ternitz in Lower Austria, they lived in the village Pottschach, where Hammerstiel remained a resident for life. Hammerstiel became an apprentice to be a baker in 1949. When his father, who had been held as a prisoner of war, returned in 1950, he interested his son in painting and drawing, and also instructed him in icon painting. Robert Hammerstiel painted portraits and landscapes of the surroundings. He completed the baker's training in 1951 but from 1955 worked in the local steel industry. The following year, he married Margareta Speringer.
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