Yosl Bergner A Selling Retrospective at Artvisory Galleries Melbourne May 2021

Yosl Bergner (1920–2017)

May 2021

A SELLING RETROSPECTIVE

Yosl Bergner (1920–2017)

A SELLING RETROSPECTIVE

We are delighted to present this selling retrospective with works primarily sourced from the artist’s studio and which includes one of the broadest selections of Yosl Bergner’s work seen together in a commercial gallery in Australia.

We are particularly proud to exhibit several very significant early works by Bergner and to mention one in particular which is the first painting in this exhibition: Still Life 1941. Painted during his time in Melbourne during the war years, in a year in which Bergner would commence serving in the Australian Army Labour Corps. This is a very significant work, which was later included in the famous Rebels and Precursors exhibition held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1962 (cat no 5). The original label for this exhibition is still retained on the back of the picture. This exhibition was described by former NGV director Patrick McCaughey as the largest and most comprehensive account of Melbourne expressionism of the 1940s. Bergner hung alongside Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Arthur Boyd, Danilla Vassilief, and John Perceval from the so-called Angry Penguins Group. Each artist was represented with a body of work and Bergner’s included this finely executed brooding still life with city-scape behind. It will be a wonderful privilege to have it hanging here at Artvisory Galleries for this exhibition.

Bergner, himself deeply affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust, kept with him a strong connection to human suffering where-ever this might be and he was very concerned about the plight of Indigenous Australians. His response here in Australia paralleled his sense of wrong-doing for his own people from his birth-place of Vienna and his subsequent home, Warsaw. The large scale edition Aboriginee’s chained to a tree (cat no. 12) is a powerful image.

As well as paintings from Yosl Bergner’s early years, this exhibition includes works from many of his later series, created in his studio in Tel-Aviv, covering all the subject matter that Bergner made his own: Clowns and Still Life’s, Animated Toys and Utensils, most with the backdrop of story-telling and there is also a very strong collection of his much admired sculpture in bronze.

We invite you to re-acquaint yourself with this important artist and to reflect upon the extraordinary life that Yosl Bergner led as an artist at a formative and unprecedented time of challenge.

Paul Sumner Artvisory Galleries Melbourne

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Still life, 1941 oil on board signed lower right signed to verso 40 x 50cm EXHIBITED

Rebels and Precursors 1937-1947 National Gallery of Victoria 1962 cat no. 5 Owned then by Mrs. Potasinski

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Still Life chicken on a table oil on canvas laid down on board signed upper left in Hebrew 44 x 59cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

King among birds, 1961 oil on canvas signed upper left signed titled and dated to verso 89 x 116cm ILLUSTRATED

Yosl Bergner Paintings. 1938-1980. Nissim Aloni and Rodi Bineth-Perry.

Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem. 1981, Page 52 Full Page Colour.

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Back to Santa Maria Bianca oil on canvas signed and dated 84 lower left signed and titled to verso 98 x 79.5cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

The Admirers oil on canvas signed lower and dated 2011 signed and titled to verso 50 x 40cm EXHIBITED

Through Fire and Water. Dan Gallery, Tel Aviv 2011, and illustrated full page colour in the accompanying catalogue

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

A Fair in the sky oil on canvas signed lower left signed and titled to verso 30 x 40cm EXHIBITED

A Fair in the Sky. Dan Gallery, Tel Aviv 2013, and illustrated over a full double-page in colour in the accompanying catalogue

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Fly life

Joebel flowers

oil on canvas signed lower right signed and titled to verso 39 x 49.5cm

oil on canvas signed lower right signed and titled to verso 50 x 40cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Still life oil on canvas signed lower right signed and titled to verso 39 x 50cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Surprised grater oil on canvas signed lower left signed and titled to verso 40 x 50cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

The Believers oil on canvas signed lower right signed and titled to verso 100 x 69cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Aboriginees chained to a tree digital print signed and dated to verso 148 x 100cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Still life oil on paper signed lower right 32 x 48cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Hora

The Kafka Album

hand coloured screen-print circa 1978 signed in pencil lower right paper size 70 x 100cm

Set of ten plus title image edition no. 36 of a set of 50 hand coloured screen prints, printed circa 1979-80 each image signed in pencil with paper stamp folio, paper size 62 x 46cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Young woman with flowers

Clown

coloured screen print artist’s proof signed in pencil to margin plate size 51 x 40.5cm

coloured screen print signed in pencil to lower margin 56 x 40.5cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

The Tea Drinkers coloured screen print artist’s proof signed in pencil to margin plate size 40.5 x 49.5cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Young couple on a landscape coloured screen print artist’s proof signed in pencil to margin plate size 41.5 x 61.5cm

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Yossi’s violin, 2012 bronze signed in the base no 9 of an edition of 9 36cm high

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

The Jockey, 2013 bronze signed in the base no 2 of an edition of 9 36.5cm high

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

Father and Son, 2012 bronze signed in the base unique state no 1 of an edition of 1 38cm high

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

The Butterfly lovers bronze signed in the base unique state no 1 of an edition of 1 42.5cm high

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

The Cellist, 2012 bronze signed in the base unique state no 1 of an edition of 1 41cm high

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YOSL BERGNER (1920-2017)

The Kite runner, 2014 bronze signed in the base no 2 of an edition of 9 60cm high

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1.11111 Text to come

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