{{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''';<ref name="NewmanJoanna">{{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}}</ref> 1918 – 2013) was an Austrian-born American printmaker, ceramist, draftsperson, fashion illustrator, sculptor, and educator.<ref name="ZinkoCarolyne">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="NewmanJoanna" /><ref name="SilversEmma">{{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.}}</ref> Her mother was a Polish-born folk art painter, under the name Esther Hamerman.<ref name="NewmanJoanna" /> Her sister Juana Nadja Merino–Kalfel (also known as Nadja Kalfel), was a noted fashion illustrator and sculptor.<ref name="NewhallEdith">{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref name="NewhallEdith" /> During the internment, Helen Hammermann worked as a fashion illustrator and modified her designs for the tropics in Trinidad.<ref name="NewmanJoanna" /> In 1944, the family was permitted to move to New York City.<ref name="NewmanJoanna" /> She was educated at the Art Students League of New York.<ref name="ZinkoCarolyne" />

Helen married an American soldier named Leonard Breger, and they had two children.<ref name="ZinkoCarolyne" /><ref name="Annex">{{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}}</ref> In 1950, the Breger family moved to San Francisco prior to divorcing.<ref name="ZinkoCarolyne" /> 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).<ref name="ZinkoCarolyne" /> She also attended classes at San Francisco State University.<ref name="SilversEmma" />

== Career == From 1954 to 1960, Breger worked as a freelance illustrator for the San Francisco Chronicle.<ref name="ZinkoCarolyne" /> She would draw for the newspaper the newest fashions found in local luxury department stores such as I. Magnin and Joseph Magnin.<ref name="ZinkoCarolyne" />

She taught drawing at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland, California, from 1959 until 1988.<ref name="Annex" /> She also taught drawing at the University of California, Berkeley in the environmental design department.<ref name="SilversEmma" />

Breger was known for her drawings, etchings and aquatints.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ZinkoCarolyne" />

She was the subject of the documentary ''Vienna in the Heavenlies'' (2012), by her daughter Michelle Shelfer.<ref name="ZinkoCarolyne" /><ref>{{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}}</ref>

Breger's work is in public collections, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,<ref>{{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}}</ref> the Metropolitan Museum of Art,<ref>{{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}}</ref> the Philadelphia Museum of Art,<ref>{{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}}</ref> the Brooklyn Museum,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Helen Breger |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/87566 |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Brooklyn Museum}}</ref> and the Binghamton University Art Museum.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

== 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 == {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Breger, Helen}} Category:1918 births Category:2013 deaths Category:American women printmakers Category:Artists from Berkeley, California Category:Artists from Vienna 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:Emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni Category:San Francisco State University alumni Category:Austrian Holocaust survivors Category:Jewish women artists