Fred Berger

I first saw the paintings of Fred Berger at his 1997 retrospective at the Cultural Center-- but his connections to the P&C run back much further than that -- and he was an honorary member for at least the last 25 years of his life. (He died a few months ago.)

He seems to have been in the thick of the art trends of the fifties -- from expressionism to abstraction -- but he is best known to many of us as a life drawing instructor at the American Academy -- and for his 'old master' quality of his drawing.






Regrettfully, very little of his work is up on the web -- but many artists list him as an important teacher -- and one of his drawings is currently on display at a special exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

There's nothing that could be called pretty about his work -- so the market for it would have been much narrower than Schmid's. But in a hundred years, he might be seen an important voice of our time.





(note:the slanting window in the upper-right corner is the result of light reflecting on the glossy surface of a photo -- but I think it looks pretty good there, anyway)