Helen Berman (; born 6 April 1936) is a Dutch- Israeli

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

. She was a textile designer in the 1960s and has been a

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 ...

and occasionally an art educator since the 1970s. She is well known in Israel and has exhibited also in Germany and the Netherlands. She created modern and postmodern art and has engaged in realistic

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and lyrical

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

Biography

Helen Berman was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

and as a young girl survived

The Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. She was trained as a

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

at the

Design Academy Eindhoven Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) is an interdisciplinary educational institute for art, architecture and design in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The work of its faculty and alumni have brought it international recognition. History The Design Academy E ...

. While at the academy, she took extracurricular coursework in the free arts with Kees Bol and Jan Gregoor. After her graduation in 1960, Helen Berman designed textiles for several companies. Some of her designs were awarded prizes and publications in professional magazines. During the seventies, Berman studied

painting 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 ...

and

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

with Thierry Veltman, graduating with a teaching degree. In 1978, she immigrated to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, where she continued to refine her style. During a decade-long residence in

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

, she became part of the local artists' community and a member of the Israel Painters and Sculptors Association. Since 1998, she has been painting and exhibiting from her studio in Tel Mond.

Exhibitions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berman, Helen 1936 births Living people Abstract expressionist artists Dutch art educators Israeli art educators Painters from Amsterdam Design Academy Eindhoven alumni Dutch emigrants to Israel Jewish Dutch artists Dutch Holocaust survivors Dutch Impressionist painters 20th-century Israeli Jews Israeli people of Dutch-Jewish descent 20th-century Israeli women artists People from Tel Mond Postmodern artists Textile designers 20th-century Dutch painters 20th-century Israeli painters 21st-century Dutch painters 21st-century Israeli painters Artists from Beersheba Educators from Beersheba Westerbork transit camp survivors Artists from Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht 20th-century Dutch women painters 21st-century Dutch women painters 20th-century Israeli women educators 20th-century Israeli educators