Nationality American | Known for Painting | |
Full Name Esther Wachsmann Born September 21 1886 Wieliczka, Poland Died 1977, New York City, New York, United States | ||
Esther Hamerman (born Esther Wachsmann) (1886-1977) was an American painter.
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Early life
She was born in 1886 in Wieliczka, Poland into a Jewish family. She had 13 siblings. When she was 18 she was married. She had four children and the family lived in Vienna.
In 1938, the family fled Vienna because of the Anschluss. For six years they lived in a British internment camp in Trinidad.
Immigration to the United States and career
In 1944 the family was released from the camp and moved to New York City. Hamerman started painting after moving to New York. Her daughter Helen Breger and her husband, Leonard, supported Hamerman's career and submitted a painting of hers to an exhibition at ACA Galleries. That exhibition was her "big break" into the art world.
Hamerman's husband died in 1950. She relocated with her daughter and son-in-law to San Francisco, where she continued to paint.
Later life
She moved back to New York in 1963. She lived with her other daughter, Nadja Merino-Kalfel. She died in 1977 in New York. Her grand-granddaughter is artist Nicole Eisenman.
Notable collections
Work and style
Hamerman was self-taught and was described as a "leading practitioner" of memory painting by Daniel Belasco, curator at the Jewish Museum. She is considered a folk artist.