Alice Berger Hammerschlag RUA

Alice Berger Hammerschlag was an abstract painter and commercial designer for publications and theatre sets. Born in Vienna in 1917, Hammerschlag fled political turbulence in 1938 and settled in Northern Ireland. It was here she met her husband, the musician, Heinz Hammerschlag. While she had attended the Kunstgewerbeschule and Vienna Academy of Arts and Crafts, it was in Ireland where her artistic career flourished most. Initially, she worked as a freelance artist designing both for publications and theatres, before becoming part of the permanent staff at the Lyric Theatre in the 1960s, designing sets for performances such as Ibsen's Brand in 1961, and The Death of Cuchulain by W. B. Yeats in 1965.

Hammerschlag showed three paintings at the Ulster Academy of Arts in 1942 and continued to exhibit work until 1961 at the Academy. In 1956, she held a solo exhibition at Queen’s University, which was followed by four further shows. In 1961, her work was first exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and would continue to be represented between 1964 and 1967. Two solo exhibitions were subsequently held at the Dawson Gallery. Her work travelled to Galerie Creuze in Paris in 1967 and was included at the Salon International Cannes in 1968 and 1969.  Hammerschlag ran the New Gallery, Belfast, and was joint secretary with Deborah Brown of the Ulster Society of Women Artists, and a member of the Women’s International Art Club.