Bernd Berner

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Bernd Berner (born September 24, 1930 in Bergedorf ; † July 12, 2002 in Stuttgart ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Life

Bernd Berner completed an apprenticeship as a lithographer . As a result of the artistic turning point caused by National Socialism, the young Bernd Berner was also looking for new artistic expressions and initially turned to the French Cubists, especially Fernand Léger. When Berner fell into the hands of Baumeister's book "The Unknown in Art" in 1947, it was a revelation for him that had a decisive influence on the young artist. In 1952 he moved to Stuttgart, where he met Willi Baumeister . His works from this period are initially completely abstract and clearly marked by furrows and scriptural structures. Between 1956 and 1958, Baumeister's direct influence as well as his affinity for Tachism and Informel increasingly lost importance. The colors in Berner's works contracted into fields of organized pictorial structure. In dealing with the non-representational painting of European modernism from 1959 onwards, he defined the term “surface space” (overwriting and overpainting that lead to a dense network and thus give the surface a certain space) for the majority of his works. He kept this term throughout his life. From 1960 he exhibited internationally. Solo exhibitions took place mainly in Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy. From 1971 to 1994 he held a professorship for painting at the College of Design in Pforzheim . His studios were in Stuttgart and temporarily in Bern and Paris. Together with Klaus Jürgen-Fischer , Eduard Micus , Erwin Bechtold and Rolf-Gunther Dienst , Berner founded the artist group SYN in 1965 , which represented the idea of ​​holistic art that went beyond the definition of a formalism. However, the group disbanded again in 1970.

Works by Bernd Berner can be found in numerous private and public art collections, including the Thompson Collection / Pittsburgh, USA; the collection of the Villa Romana ; the Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany / Berlin; the State Gallery Stuttgart ; the Duke Anton Ulrich Museum / Braunschweig; the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe as well as the National Gallery Berlin and the Kunsthalle Mannheim .

Bernd Berner was a member of the German Association of Artists and exhibited there regularly as well as in the exhibitions of the Darmstadt Secession or the annual large art exhibitions in the Haus der Kunst in Munich.

His studios were in Stuttgart and temporarily in Pieterlen , a municipality in the canton of Bern / Switzerland and Paris / France. In 2002 Bernd Berner died in Stuttgart.

His artistic estate is located in Cologne at VAN HAM Art Estate. The documentary estate is in the German Art Archive in Nuremberg.

Quote

»We are being covered more and more by visual and acoustic nuisances, we are affected, we are injured. Our existence is threatened by mendacity, by the talmi; we are not only manipulated politically. Our lives are increasingly determined by obscure media and interest groups. Art is also political, but it would be an illusion if you wanted to think that art could bring about social change. But art also involves thinking ahead, providing food for thought and sometimes the ability to criticize. What seems more important to me is that art offers a contemplative "counterpart" to all (also optical) overfeeds of our time. Art also disturbs, disturbs, hurts, but - in the best case - leads people to themselves, since I mistrust the loud, I am concerned with the silence - which sometimes shows itself as apparent. «- Bernd Berner 1994

Exhibitions

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Exhibition catalog: Bernd Berner. Paintings and works on paper 1957 - 2001. Exhibition of the Castle Museum of the City of Aschaffenburg in the New Art Association Aschaffenburg eV, Aschaffenburg 2002, p. 81.
  2. ↑ Günther Wirth: On the way to surface space 1956 to 1960. Marginalia to the early work of Bernd Becher, in: Volume 1 of the catalog raisonné in eight volumes / Biographical series, Kunstverlag Gotha, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Exhibition catalog: Bernd Berner. Paintings and works on paper 1957 - 2001. Exhibition of the Castle Museum of the City of Aschaffenburg in the New Art Association Aschaffenburg eV, Aschaffenburg 2002, p. 81.
  4. ^ Syn: Bernd Berner, Rolf Gunter Dienst, Klaus Jürgen-Fischer, Eduard Micus, Marc Vaux , Galerie Margarete Lauter, Mannheim, 07.01.-02.02.1966. page
  5. ↑ Robert Kudielka: Limits of Clarification. Bernd Berner's painting in the years 1965–1970, in: Volume 3 of the catalog raisonné in eight volumes / Biographical series, Kunstverlag Gotha, p. 6 ff.
  6. ↑ Exhibition catalog: Bernd Berner. Paintings and works on paper 1957 - 2001. Castle Museum of the City of Aschaffenburg in the New Art Association Aschaffenburg eV, 17.3. - April 21, 2002, p. 83.
  7. ↑ 1970 exhibition catalog: Fig. 35 (Bernd Berner: Area 213 , 1970, oil on canvas, 160 × 150 cm)

Literature (selection)

  • Bernd Berner: Area 1959–1984. , Landesmuseum Oldenburg, Cologne / Oldenburg 1984.
  • Bernd Berner: Catalog raisonné of prints. Munich 1986
  • Bernd Berner: Works on paper. Institute for Modern Art, Nuremberg 1987, ISBN 3-922531-51-2 .
  • Bernd Berner: Göppingen / Mannheim 1991
  • Bernd Berner: Early work: 1956 - 1969. Kunstverlag Gotha, Wechmar 1995, ISBN 3-931182-12-6 .
  • Catalog raisonné in eight volumes / Biographical series, Gotha 1996–2000
  • Bernd Berner: Paintings and works on paper 1957–2001. Aschaffenburg 2002
  • Bernd Berner: Retrospective. Marburg 2003
  • Bernd Berner. In: Olaf Matthes, Bardo Metzger (Hrsg.): Bergedorfer Personenlexikon. Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-935987-03-X , pp. 228f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Berner, Bernd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Bergedorf , Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 2002
Place of death Stuttgart , Baden-Wuerttemberg