The Hammacher Archive

Photographer and graphic designer Arno Hammacher (1927-2017) was the son of museum director Abraham Hammacher (1897-2002), who managed the Kröller-Müller Museum from 1947-1963. Arno bequeathed his entire inheritance to the Beelden aan Zee museum. In 2017, the museum received various artworks, the archive, and the estate from his legacy. 

Arno Hammacher worked and lived in Italy for a long time, from 1957 in Milan. He was educated at the predecessor of the Rietveld Academy (Institute for Applied Arts Education) in Amsterdam and the Royal Academy in The Hague, where he graduated in 1952 in photography and graphic design. In the mid-1950s, he undertook study trips to Sicily, Calabria, and Sardinia. Before his departure to Milan, Hammacher worked at the Lettergieterij Amsterdam and studied for several years in London, where he became friends with the sculptor Barbara Hepworth. He introduced her to his father, the museum director. In 1962, Arno Hammacher traveled around the United States. In the late 1970s, he was a guest lecturer at his own Rietveld. 

In Italy, Arno Hammacher organized dozens of exhibitions. He also made photo reports for magazines, books, and catalogs and took care of their design. He also exhibited his photographic work in galleries and museums. Recurring themes in his work are architecture, sculpture, and nature. In 2008, the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia “Leonardo da Vinci”, in collaboration with Archivio di Stato di Milano, organized the successful retrospective exhibition Il punto di vista di Arno.  

The archive contains various materials: ego documents, photographic material, documentation for Arno Hammacher's work, and artworks by his hand. The importance of the archive is of general art-historical nature. The emphasis is on the Italian art world of the 1970s and 1980s, but material from the artist's entire working life is present. Notable is his politically left-wing signature. He filmed and photographed during the Carnation Revolution in Portugal and worked in Cuba. As an artist, he was not only politically engaged but also fascinated by details in nature.

To honor his legacy and to keep his name as an artist alive, this intimate exhibition has been organized. Sketch material, completed work, and work by other artists are shown together. This makes it clear that Arno Hammacher had a broad and cultivated taste. In his photographic work, he was fascinated by the abstraction of the enlarged detail, a way to convey his great cultural and artistic vision to the viewer. 

Curator: Dick van Broekhuizen