Helen Breger

Helen Breger (née Helen Hammermann; 1918 – 2013) was an Austrian-born American printmaker, ceramist, draftsperson, fashion illustrator, sculptor, and educator. 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. Her mother was a Polish-born folk art painter, under the name Esther Hamerman.

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. In 1950, the Breger family moved to San Francisco prior to divorcing. 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.

Breger's work is in public collections, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Binghamton University Art Museum.

Publications