Bernece Berkman (1911–1988), known as Bernece Berkman-Hunter after marriage, was an American

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

born in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. She was inspired by what she saw in urban Chicago during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and is best known for paintings depicting the plight of industrial workers and the poor.

Life and career

Berkman-Hunter, née Berkman, was born in 1911 in Chicago. She took evening sketching classes in

Todros Geller Todros Geller (Yiddish: טודרוס געלער; July 1, 1889 – February 23, 1949) was a Jewish American artist and teacher best known as a master printmaker and a leading artist among Chicago's art community. Early life and education Gell ...

's studio and studied oil painting with Geller. Rudolph Weisenborn was another early influence. Working with both of these artists, Berkman was introduced to

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

and

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

and her work became more political in nature. She also studied briefly in New York at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

and at

The New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

under Stuart Davis. In 1934, Berkman-Hunter's work was exhibited for the first time in a group show of Jewish artists at the

Palmer House Palmer House may refer to: In the United Kingdom * Palmer House, Great Torrington, an 18th-century house in Devon In the United States Items in this section are alphabetized by state, then city. * Palmer House (Blackton, Arkansas), listed on th ...

in Chicago. In 1939 she exhibited a painting at the New York World's Fair. Berkman-Hunter's work was included in the 1940

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

show ''American Color Prints Under $10''. The show was organized as a vehicle for bringing affordable fine art prints to the general public. She married Oscar H. Hunter, an African-American writer, in 1946. Together they founded a wallpaper company, Berk-Hunter Associates, in 1949. They divorced in 1976. In 1947, she was included in the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts exhibition of the

National Serigraph Society The National Serigraph Society was founded in 1940 by a group of artists involved in the WPA Federal Art Project, including Anthony Velonis, Max Arthur Cohn, and Hyman Warsager. The creation of the society coincided with the rise of serigraphs ...

artists. In 1972, she traveled to France and Italy. Her travel diary is housed at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. She was an active member of the artistic community in Chicago and New York, and belonged to the Chicago Society of Artists and the Chicago Women's Salon. Berkman-Hunter died in 1988 in New York.

Exhibitions

* American Artists Congress, 1937 *

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

, 1938 *Springfield (MA) Museum of Fine Art *WPA Exhibition,

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, 1938 * New York World's Fair, 1939 *International Water Color Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, 1940 *Chicago and Vicinity Exhibit, Art Institute of Chicago, 1940–41 *After the Great Crash: New Deal Art in Illinois,

Illinois State Museum The Illinois State Museum features the life, land, people and art of the State of Illinois. In addition to natural history exhibits, the main museum in Springfield focuses on the state's cultural and artistic heritage. Exhibits include local foss ...

, Springfield (IL), 1983

Selected works

''Jews in Flight''
(1939)
''Untitled, Man in the City''
(1943)

Collections

The Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatoria ...

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art is an art museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located ...

*Evansville State Hospital *Bernard Friedman Collection *

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

* University of Nebraska, Omaha

References

External links

Bernece Berkman-Hunter papers, 1910-1991
Library of Congress {{DEFAULTSORT:Berkman, Bernece 1911 births 1988 deaths Painters from New York (state) School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Painters from Chicago Hunter College alumni The New School alumni 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters