Robert Bergman
American, b. 1944
Untitled, 1990
Inkjet print, printed 2004
Anonymous Gift. © Robert Bergman

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Robert Bergman: Portraits, 1986-1995

Friday, June 18, 2010—Sunday, August 22, 2010
Harrison Photography Gallery 365
Free Exhibition

In 1985, Robert Bergman began to work in color, using both the saturated and muted hues of the city and his subjects' attire to achieve a rich, painterly idiom. He spent the next twelve years making a series of monumental portraits of Americans, with no special lighting or equipment, only a finely tuned sense of form and his ability to establish a rapport with his subjects. By focusing on their penetrating gazes, downcast eyes, or distant stares, he depicts individuals, not types, revealing their strength and delicacy, as the distinguished art historian Meyer Schapiro noted. Placing their faces at the front of the frame, Bergman leaves little room for background distractions while clearing a path toward the recognition of his subjects' psychological complexities, as well as their remarkable range of emotions. Viewed together, the photographs form a provocative series that speaks not only of the physical presence of these individuals but also their psychic states. This exhibition of thirty works is the first major presentation of these portraits.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.