MERSAD BERBER
	FOREWORD Images of the past sweep through the consciousness as one views the timeless works of Mersad Berber. These paintings are in a sense a visual history of a place in the world as graced with beauty as it has been impacted by war. For the whole of his life, Berber has witnessed the struggle of his homeland, the former Yugoslavia, and he draws from cultural imagery that spans from Medieval times to the twenty-first century, from the Greeks to the Renaissance. Mersad Berber was born January 1, 1940, in Bosanki Petrovac, a Western Bosnian township known for its craftsmen skilled in weaving. In 1941, World War II disrupted the quiet, hardworking life of the Berber family and they fled to the safety of Banja Luka leaving behind all their possessions after their town had been destroyed. Berber began his primary education there in 1946, and from the first grade impressed his teachers with his expert draftsmanship. He continued to produce virtuoso drawings and paintings on paper throughout his secondary school years. His formal education began in 1959 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljublijana in the Republic of Slovenia, where he received his undergraduate and masters degrees. Fifty years after the Second World War, amidst the melting pot of diverse cultures and religions, history would repeat itself as the Civil War in former Yugoslavia had a devastating effect on Berber's life. His house and studio in his beloved Sarajevo were partially destroyed and he and his family escaped to Croatia on a UN transport plane. In Zagreb, he has rebuilt his life and work. A master at combining references from ages past with a modern aesthetic and relevance, Mersad Berber's paintings have captivated collectors for the past 40 years. It is the iconic imagery he incorporates in his work that first impacts the viewer -- a youth holding a lyre garbed in the flowing garments of the god Apollo; a statuesque young woman gazing at a Byzantine palace; the noble equine about whom Ottoman myths abound. The sculptural pieces that frequently appear alongside his figures seem to have emerged from antiquity. Subtler however, is the soft glow, lighting the delicate flush on a young girl's face, which evokes the tonality of Michelangelo and Raphael. Yet it is Berber's surfaces as well, multi-layered and intricate, which recall Baroque frescoes, Old Master's etchings, and tapestries that have colored the halls of history. His paintings for the most part are mixed media, incorporating collage, modern materials and sections of works he has produced as a master print maker. His surfaces convey antiquity but are in technique very much an artistic statement of this century. Perhaps the most striking quality in Mersad Berber's work, however, is his often-fragmented use of imagery. His paintings are, in a sense, polyptychs-arrangements of various images that seem to glide into one another, with an unlikely narrative melding them into a whole. The faces of several women seemingly unconnected, yet drawn together by the commonality of their age, mood, and the hand of a master, form a stunning if unconventional composition. They are rare masterpieces, brought to light for our pleasure. Mersad Berber has completed over 100 solo exhibitions worldwide in addition to numerous group shows. Since 1966, he has received more than 50 awards, among them the Gold Medal and Honorary Diploma at the First International Exhibition of the Graphic Arts in Trieste, the First Award at the 11th International Biennale in Sao Paolo, Honorary Prize at the 10th International Biennale of Graphic Art in Tokyo and the Lalit Kala Academy Grand Prize at the 5th Indian Triennale in New Delhi. His works are also part of the collections of museums across Europe. An artist of many talents, in addition to painting, Mersad Berber is highly accomplished in different forms of graphic art, illustration, animated film direction, set design and monotype. The Eleanor Ettinger Gallery is proud to host his first One-Man Exhibition in New York.
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