Brief biography of Jörgen Hammar
Born in Stockholm 1935
Sculptor, sketcher, grafic artist, painter

Studies
The Academy of Arts, Copenhagen
The Academy of Arts, Stockholm
Academia di Belli Arti, Florence

Represented
Works exhibited in numerous Swedish public and municipal institutions and museums, as well as in museums in Poland, Germany, Latvia and Israel. Works represented in private collections in Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Germany and in USA. A museum with forty wooden sculptures was created in 1992 at Pinakoteket, Mörbylånga in Öland.

Public works
Number of sculptures, paintings and graphic works made upon order and exhibited in Stockholm, Huddinge, Eskilstuna, Solna, Gothenburg, Nyköping, Luleå, Sollentuna, Lidingö and Mörbylånga - Öland.

Exhibitions
Many exhibitions mostly in larger towns and villages in Sweden, as well as abroad: in Poland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Latvia and USA.

Scholarships
Besides a number of swedish scholarships, he has received the Italian State Cultural Scholarship, Albanian State Cultural Scholarship, Swedish International Development Agencýs Africa Scholarship (Tanzania), and scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture.

About Jörgen Hammar
Jörgen Hammar was born in Stockholm in 1935 and spent his early years in Sundbyberg (outside Stockholm). His father came from a farmers family in Ovansjö, which lies in the Swedish province of Gästrikland. His father´s father was a preacher of the Missionary Society. Little Jörgen often lived with his relatives in the country, where the rural life of a farmstead left strong impressions upon the boy - with its life, farmwork and animals. This countryhouse was rich in the typical Dalecarlian wallpaintings and objects of folkart. Jörgen´s father was an educated teacher and gradually rose to the position of the headmaster at the school in Sundbyberg. His mother grew up in a very religious family and was herself very pious - she was an active member of the Society of Sofia´s Sisters, who cared for the outcasts and drunkards. Jörgen´s father had a deep interest for history, especially the Middle Ages and churches of that time. Therefore Jörgen had the chance to visit, together with his father, many old churches in the provinces of Uppland and Sörmland. Jörgen was very impressed by the sacral art, crucifixes and altarpieces. Encouraged by his father, Jörgen started drawing and painting very early.
From the beginning going to school was quite a fun for Jörgen, even though he had to fight a few battles in the schoolyard, outraged by the other boys, who teased him for being the schoolmaster´s son. Later Jörgen was unenthusiastic by the somewhat routine studyprocess at school and later in the grammarschool, where he hated the technical subjects. However, he enjoyed other subjects, like literature, drawing, languagelessons, essaywriting and sports. From his early years Jörgen became very attracted to literature. Jörgen also kept warm memories of his drawingteacher, who favoured the boy and devoted special attention to him. Still on the whole, schoolyears were a headache for Jörgen. Though with some difficulty, Hammar managed to become a student of economics. The goal was now firmly set: either to become a clerk in some bank or an officer. This choice was influenced by his mother, even though he himself meditated upon becoming a preast.
Militaryservice brought a feeling of relief. Having passed the exam of reserveofficer in the Infantry, Jörgen Hammar applied for retirement and cut all ties with the family, which had been quite close, up to that very moment. He had already met his future wife. Jörgen Hammar spent much of 1956 abroad mostly in Mykonos in Greece. At long last Hammar could take up serious artstudies, and he was overcome by a paintingfrenzy. Vincent van Gogh was his idol att that time. While staying in the Micenos , which was then still untouched by massive tourism, Hammar often attended orthodox churchservices, which would always serve as a strong emotional impulse for him. Hammar also truly admired Greek music at that time.
Briefly, Hammar stayed also in Barcelona and Paris, painting models at their artschools. During the Parisperiod, the future artist spent much of his time in his favouriteplace - Musee de l`Homme, Paris´s ethnographic museum. There he painted intensively, especially African sculptures. Often he went to the Jardin de Plantes, where he would admire and paint the animals.
In 1959, Hammar attended lessons in copper graphics at the courses given by Stockholm University, where he later finished a course in litography as well. Meanwhile he also studied at the night department of the Stockholm School of Applied Arts. Having gone through that, he entered the Pernby School of Painting, where he could study free of charge against services to the school. He would do all possible jobs there - cleaning the rooms, keeping the fire burning, taking care of the models and even sometimes modeling himself. Hammar felt as ifhe had finally found his place in life. The study process att this school was very intensive, including all from painting portraits and still lifes during the day and special studies in the evening. Very soon Hammar started making clay studie of the plaster copies of antique sculptures, of which there was quite a collection ever since the times of Otte Sköld. He made the studies independently, working in his spare time and often even during the nights, while the rooms were empty. One day Hammar threw the studies, some of them not yet quite dry, in his old car and departed for Copenhagen, straight to the Academy of Arts. He would later remember, how professor Boggild would follow him to the Kongens Nytorv, where Hammar had lined up his clay sculptures - right on the very walking lane. The sculptures stood there in the middle of marching soldiers and puzzeld passers-by. When Boggild had walked around all sculptures, closely examining them and smoking cigaretes one after the other, he suddenly declared, much to the surprise of the young artist, that Hammar was enrolled in the Academy as a private student and could start studying the very next morning, if he only wished to. Boggild really came to mean very much for Hammar, and he stayed at the Academy for more than a year. This period left an indelible impression upon the artist and his later works. It was during that time that Hammar got to know Danish graphic art and the biggest stars of that time - Sven Wiig-Hansen, Palle Nielsen, Dan Sterup-Hansen and others. Hammar also got in touch with the "Cobra group" and the German expressionist groups who called themselves "Der Blaue Reiter" and "Die Brücke". Hammar was particularly influenced by the art of Max Beckman and Ernst Barlach. During the Copenhagen period, Hammar studied the impressionist movements and Danish turn of the century art. In his spare time and during the weekends he would often go to the Copenhagen Museum of History and devote himself to painting. Particularly, he liked the Glyptotek.
In 1963, Hammar was enrolled with the Sculpture Department of the Stockholm Academy af Arts. Then came another important meeting - Asmund Arle, who was at that time professor of the Academy. Hammar was very much influenced by his sincerity, warm personality and attitude towards life and art. Trips to Paris, Poland, Rome, Barcelona and Tunis, within the academy programme, left lasting memories. In the evenings, Hammar studied copper graphic at the School of Graphics, which was at that time headed by Philip von Schantz. Having devoted himself for several years mainly to work in clay, Hammar made a turn towards wood. This was very much influenced by the famous Vera Nilsson, who was at that time making a grand altar piece in a studio situated close to the academy. Hammar was also encouraged to make the change by professor Bror Marklund.
During academy years, in 1967, Stockholm Museum of Modern Art featured a major exhibition of a Polish sculptor Wladislav Hasior. Years later, Hammar and his wife visited Hasior in his studio in Zakopane, Poland. Before that, in 1966 Jörgen Hammar got a guest scholarship to study at the Academia di Belli Arti in Florence. Apart from studies, Hammar would go to the nearby Ufficie gallery to make copies from the original masterpieces of Durer, da Vinci, Michelangelo and other classics. He would later tell his friends, how it was - you ordered the originals of some Rennaissance artist and soon the guard would bring them in a tiny van. During his stay in Italy, Hammar travelled a lot, both by rail and by boat. He spent a long time in Rome and other major cities. Another important meeting waited for Hammar in Villa Julia: the Etruscan art with its monumentality and simplicity of expression. Greek sculptures became very important to the artist from that moment on. Then in 1966 Hammar got bunged up in his Florence studie on Via del Corno by large masses of water, when the Arno river rose, overflooding nearly all the city. Though with dramatic difficulty, Hammar managed to save his bare life, while many of his works were destroyed by the floods. After that, Hammar got seriously ill and had to spend the whole winter in Rapallo to recover.
By that time Jörgen Hammar had already married his beloved Gertraude, and they had got two children: a daughter, Anna, was born in 1962, and a son, Erik - in 1965. At about the same time, Hammar´s family acquired a country mansion at Skokloster in the province of Uppland. Hammar built a studio in the premises of the former stables and the barn. That marked the beginning of a very happy and creative period for the artist. He felt good in the country atmosphere, surrounded by his family and animals. During that period Hammar also made several decorative works in beton, however, soon enough, after exhausting disputes with the municipal and public authorities, Hammar swore to himself never again to work on order. "My pieces must never be purely decorative, they must always carry an idea and say something", Hammar would often remark later.
For more than twenty years, up to 1992 Jörgen Hammar worked as teacher of sculpture. In the 70´ies he stopped all creative work, devoting himself to teaching his students. According to Hammar´s own comments, he regards this time as a very dark period, because according to Hammar´s understanding of individual freedom, the whole atmosphere appeared to him strange and hostile to art. Hammar experienced som kind of an artistic isolation and went through a series of serious depressions, once even forced to spend time in hospital. During his stay in the hospital, Hammar came in close contact with psychiatrist Ture Arvidsson, whose hypnotic abilities and insight made a strong impression on the artist. Hammar believes, that when sketching or painting uninterruptedly for a longer time, he reaches a condition of extreme concentration, when the distance between the thought and his hand is shrunk to the minimum. Hammar also believes, that this condition helps him to overcome, though just for a while, the intellectual barrier of the mind and reach the deepest layer of feelings and emotions. Then it is up to the artist to catch the momentum and transfer the feelings on paper or canvas.
In 1969 Hammar and his family moved to Sollentuna, where the artist had acquired a house with a very good studio. Later on another studio was built on the same plot of land. Then he could make graphic works, sketches and paintings in the studio on the upper floor of the house, and then go out in the new studio to make sculptures. Having stopped his teaching, Hammar returned to creative work in the 90´íes. Hammar has once remarked, that he finally feels as an independent artist, who stands aside of all artistic trends. Hammar also says, that he is absolutely uninterested in contemporary art and that he has all his life wished to live a simple and sober life. This might explain why during so many years Hammar never tried to arrange exhibitions in Sweden. During the last few years, Hammar has had several exhibitions in Europe, mainly in East European countries. Hammar´s works are often exhibited in Rostock, Germany, where the artist has a gallerist and even a bronze-caster.
In the 80´ies Jörgen Hammar found inspiration in his travels. Together with his wife Gertraude, they traveled around Eastern Europe, especially Poland and what was then the GDR. Hammar´s one man show in Warszaw resulted in following exhibitions in the places of former detention camps in Auschwitz and Majdanek. This experience triggered a turn in Jörgen Hammar´s art, and he even decided to stay and work for some time in these places. Under the influence of this period, the famous so called "black Polish graphics" were born. The artist was also very impressed by the traditional Polish sculptures and their naïve sincerity with no trace of routine.'
Sculptor Johan August Gustavsson from Segerstad in Öland and his primitivist sculptures have also played an important role to Jörgen Hammar. Another exhibition at the Städtische Kunstsammlungen in Görlitz, deep inside the "forgotten" GDR opened the artist´s eyes in another way. Hammar was also very impressed by his experiences in Africa. While in Tanzania, he admired the primitive African sculptures and finally caught malaria and had to go through very dramatic times………… ..........................................
Among other exhibitions during the year 2002 has Jörgen Hammar a travellingexhibition in different places all over Finland with more than 100 drawings some graphic art and twelve wooden sculptures inspired by the finnish epos Kalevala. In august the 19th 2003 donated the artist the whole exhibition to Nykarleby town, Finland.