THE AMERICA N-S CANDINAVIAN REVIEW 
607 
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and eternal problems of his 
art. He did not begin to de¬ 
velop this style until he first 
exhibited with the Society of 
Independent Artists in 1917. 
Previous to that time none of 
his works had been carried 
out in stone or marble. When 
he exhibited his clay and 
plaster models, and criticized 
them in comparison with the 
work of others, he decided 
that he must work in the 
harder materials. And when 
he began carrying out his 
clay and plaster models in 
marble and stone, like a true 
sculptor, he at once began to 
discover what he could and 
what he could not, achieve 
within the possibilities and limitations of these materials. The past five 
years have seen a remarkable development in Hammer’s work. Each 
year has brought finer work and a happier solution of the sculptor’s 
problems. One does not feel that Hammer imposes his conventions 
from without, but that he tries to discover within each object the 
principles of order which best express it, and he encloses it within the 
ordered rhythm which establishes the harmony of its lines and masses. 
Though Hammer’s work will find its niche, and a great one, I 
believe, in the pantheon of 
American sculpture, he is a 
true son of the North. There 
is something of the brooding 
thoughtfulness of the North 
in all his things. They are 
full of a sustained vitality 
held in the leash of unbroken 
reserve. His later work has 
been called Egyptian because 
of its chaste severity. But 
there is a severity of the 
North as well. One finds it 
in the old Norse wood carvers 
and sculptors. One finds it 
in Norse literature, in the 
old chroniclers, and certainly 
Head of an Old Man 
Portrait of a Lady 
