After emigrating to Israel, Yosl Bergner moved from Social Realism, which he preferred to call Social Humanism. Here in his art he created the unique fairy world of kind sad dreamers and butterflies, which is full of allusions to the social problems, that he depicted before. Being a theatrical artist, he presented the world as beautiful decoration for good-natured inhabitants of shtetl. For example, in “A wedding in a shtetl” faces of heroes are naive. Particularly, spectators see their prying honest eyes. The bribe has closed her eyes. There is love, playfulness and joy at innocence.
Almost all fabulous heroes in the art of Yosl Bergner are young. It seems to be the shtetl of grown children.
Set designer
Yosl Bergner is known as a set designer – especially for plays of the late Nissim Aloni, instantly his beautiful “Crying Boy”. Interestingly, Aloni wrote The Bride and the Butterfly Hunter after being inspired by famous Bergner series. By the way, Kings gallery has his sculptures and paintings on this theme. In “The girl and the butterfly hunter” we see the girl, that is able to dream infinitely, feels wonders and has a language to interact with them. Butterflies are beautiful miracles, that fill the world with goodness, as in sculpture “Boy and Girl”.
Another prominent motif
Another prominent motif in Bergner’s work is the kitchen utensils. During artist’s childhood he did not have “ordinary” toys, and played near kitchen. Also, he did drawings with habitual objects in unusual unrealistic circumstances, such as “Funneling hail”. Stones on it are falling on the earth from the sky through enormous funnel. The painting provokes thoughts about unpredictability and human weakness. Israel Prize-winner Yosl Bergner said about his art: “I’m a story teller through paintings. I tell stories of how I feel. It’s my language. I’m a talker; I’m a schvitzer. A painting puts a certain form to it, but it’s not always that I like it. ”
Bergner’s wonderful musicians, that are almost flying inside their melodies. “Fiddler” is playing and dreaming alone far away from the town. The power of his music makes him mighty. “Band” of young musicians looks inspirational, although their life is challenging. The expressive sad eyes of the fiddler are fixed on the spectator.
Please find a large selection of works by Yosl Bergner, the artist who showed delicate fusion between sadness and joy.
Kings Gallery is a leading fine art gallery established in Jerusalem in 1995. We strive to collect and sell the highest quality historic and contemporary Israeli and International art. Especially, the gallery specializes in artists from the early period of the 1920’s. In addition, Kings Gallery features leading up-and-coming young artists who will definitely be prominent names in the next few years.
