# Jonathan Hammer artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/jonathan-hammer/
Profile generated: 2026-05-08T10:12:50.317Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: American
- Common media: painting, printmaking, bookbinding and artists' books

## About Jonathan Hammer

Jonathan Hammer (born 1960, Chicago) is an American artist, painter, and bookbinder whose practice spans painting, printmaking, and fine bookbinding. He graduated from Bard College and studied bookbinding at the London College of Printing, a discipline that has informed his engagement with artists' books and illustrated editions. For a period he lived and worked in San Francisco, where he was associated with the renowned Arion Press as a bookbinder, and he later settled in the village of Laguarres in northern Spain. Hammer has produced notable illustrated editions, including twenty-four prints for a 2013 edition of George Orwell's Animal Farm and a collaboration with Hugo Ball's Dada writings published as Ball and Hammer (Arion Press, c. 2002). His work is represented in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

## Common works and media

Hammer's output includes paintings on canvas and panel, editioned prints (including woodcuts and other printmaking techniques), and fine bookbindings or bookworks produced in association with presses such as Arion Press. Illustrated literary editions — notably his twenty-four prints for Animal Farm and his Dada-inspired collaboration Ball and Hammer — represent a distinctive segment of his production. Collectors may also encounter works on paper, drawings, and bindings that combine artisanal craft with contemporary art sensibility.

## Market and appraisal context

Jonathan Hammer's work appears regularly at auction, with over five hundred lots recorded. Collectors are most likely to encounter his paintings, prints, and limited-edition bookworks. Value is influenced by medium, size, edition status (for prints and books), provenance, condition, and any connection to his Arion Press collaborations or literary illustration projects. Works held in institutional collections such as MoMA may carry additional market weight. Because auction records were not available in this research pass, specific price ranges should be verified through live auction databases and comparable-sale analysis.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. This page draws on authority files from the Library of Congress, Getty ULAN, VIAF, Wikidata, and MoMA collection records to establish identity and context.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55218874
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500330521
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/29778811/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2002033343
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/25581