H.C. Westermann

H. C. Westermann was born in Los Angeles in 1922. From a young age he designed his own toys and models, and even designed the addition on to his family’s home. Before looking into a career in art, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Japan in World War II.  After the war, Westermann took advantage of the G.I. Bill and enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, from which he graduated in the 1950s. Although often identified as a Chicago artist, he moved to the suburbs of New York later in life.

Westermann had a strong love for his country and a colorful personality. He drew a lot of inspiration for his work from his time in the military because of the dark things he saw while he was fighting--in his art he never romanticized war. This experience in the war lies at the heart of Westermann’s art and made him different from many artists in the 1960s.  Westermann’s work in sculpture and printmaking was informed by surrealism but some of his art was so hard to understand that he himself had a hard time describing it.

-Maddie Palermo