Helen Breger
{{Short description|Austrian-born American visual artist (1918–2013)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Helen Breger
| other_names = Helen Hamerman Breger, Helen Hamerman
| birth_name = Helen Hammermann
| birth_date = 1918
| birth_place = Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)
| death_date = October 22, 2013
| death_place = Berkeley, California, U.S.
| education = Art Students League of New York, San Francisco State University, San Francisco Art Institute, California College of Arts and Crafts (MFA)
| occupation = Printmaker, ceramist, draftsperson, illustrator, sculptor, watercolorist, educator
| known_for = Etching
| spouse = Leonard Breger (divorced)
| children = 2
| mother = Esther Hamerman
| awards = MacDowell Fellowship (1967)
}}
Helen Breger (née Helen Hammermann;{{Cite book |last=Newman |first=Joanna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AcmrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |title=Nearly the New World: The British West Indies and the Flight from Nazism, 1933–1945 |date=2019-09-13 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-78920-334-9 |pages=132, 276 |language=en}} 1918 – 2013) was an Austrian-born American printmaker, ceramist, draftsperson, fashion illustrator, sculptor, and educator.{{Cite news |last=Zinko |first=Carolyne |date=October 26, 2013 |title=Bay Area artist, teacher Helen Breger dies |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/bay-area-artist-teacher-helen-breger-dies-4929120.php |work=SFGate}} She taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland, California for over 30 years.
Early life and education
Helen Hammermann was born in 1918, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria), to Jewish parents Esther (née Waschmann) and Baruch Hammermann.{{Cite news |last=Silvers |first=Emma |date=March 1, 2013 |title=Two generations render Holocaust memories through art |url=https://jweekly.com/2013/03/01/two-generations-render-holocaust-memories-through-art/ |work=J.}} Her mother was a Polish-born folk art painter, under the name Esther Hamerman. Her sister Juana Nadja Merino–Kalfel (also known as Nadja Kalfel), was a noted fashion illustrator and sculptor.{{Cite web |last=Newhall |first=Edith |date=2012-03-06 |title=All in the Family |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/all-in-the-family-517/ |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US}}
In 1938, after Anschluss when the Federal State of Austria into the Nazi German Reich, the Hammermann family fled to Trinidad, and were interred by the British for six years. During the internment, Helen Hammermann worked as a fashion illustrator and modified her designs for the tropics in Trinidad. In 1944, the family was permitted to move to New York City. She was educated at the Art Students League of New York.
Helen married an American soldier named Leonard Breger, and they had two children.{{Cite web |title=Helen Breger Biography |url=https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/4169/Breger/Helen |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Annex Galleries Fine Prints}} In 1950, the Breger family moved to San Francisco prior to divorcing. She continued her education at the San Francisco Art Institute; and received a M.F.A. degree in 1970 from the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts). She also attended classes at San Francisco State University.
Career
From 1954 to 1960, Breger worked as a freelance illustrator for the San Francisco Chronicle. She would draw for the newspaper the newest fashions found in local luxury department stores such as I. Magnin and Joseph Magnin.
She taught drawing at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland, California, from 1959 until 1988. She also taught drawing at the University of California, Berkeley in the environmental design department.
Breger was known for her drawings, etchings and aquatints.{{Cite web |last=Stiles |first=Knute |date=1965-02-01 |title=Helen Breger |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/helen-breger-236836/ |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}} But she worked in many other mediums, including watercolor, ceramics, and bronze sculpture.
Death and legacy
Breger grappled with liver cancer, and died on October 22, 2013, at her home in Berkeley, California.
She was the subject of the documentary Vienna in the Heavenlies (2012), by her daughter Michelle Shelfer.{{Cite web |title=Collections: Jewish family in Vienna, 1938 |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn557815 |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum}}
Breger's work is in public collections, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,{{Cite web |title=Collection: Helen Breger |url=https://www.famsf.org/art-finder?artist=4645 |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) |language=en}} the Metropolitan Museum of Art,{{Cite web |title=Helen Breger, Sightseeing |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/428908 |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}} the Philadelphia Museum of Art,{{Cite web |title=Children's Games (Part I) |url=https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/60212 |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Philadelphia Museum of Art |language=en}} the Brooklyn Museum,{{Cite web |title=Helen Breger |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/87566 |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Brooklyn Museum}} and the Binghamton University Art Museum.{{Cite web |title=Helen Breger |url=https://buamcollection.binghamton.edu/artist-maker/info?records=60&query=Artist_Maker=%22427%22&artistName=Breger,%20Helen |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Binghamton University Art Museum}}
Publications
- {{Cite book |last=Breger |first=Helen |title=Lines: A Sketched Life |date=2008}}
- {{Cite book |last=Breger |first=Helen |title=Sketches Poetical |last2=Foley |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Foley (poet) |date=2011 |type=artist book with CD}}
References
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Category:American women printmakers
Category:Artists from Berkeley, California
Category:Art Students League of New York alumni
Category:California College of the Arts alumni
Category:California College of the Arts faculty
Category:Jewish American sculptors
Category:Jewish Austrian sculptors
Category:Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States
Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni
Category:San Francisco State University alumni