Barbara M. Berger - Luckys--Twenty-second and Fifth

Barbara M. Berger

Berger’s paintings are influenced partly by John Singer Sargent, German Expressionism, and artists such as Balthus, Gauguin, and Picasso (Blue Period), in that they seek to convey a psychological tension between the viewer and the subject by the use of line and color. Most of her figurative works include some type of self-portrait, in the Renaissance fashion, presenting the artist as an omnipresent observer looking out from the picture plane. The paintings that depict interior spaces are constructed to accentuate the emotions of the figures portrayed within, as well as transport the viewer to a specific milieu: these include cabarets, fashion shoot sets, backstage dressing rooms, burlesque stages, and circuses. The urban and rural landscapes, mostly without figures, are meant to communicate a sense of space and place through color, shape, and line: a time of day or year, the feeling of nostalgia for a remembered or archetypal vista.