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Biography of Eugène Berman
Russian neo-romantic painter and stage and opera designer Eugene Gustavovich Berman was born in Saint Petersburg in 1899. His older brother, Leonid, was four years older and had an identical artistic career. Both brothers studied art in Europe, before returning to begin a classical art education with Russian realist painter P.S. Naumoff. They fled the Bolshevik Revolution of 1918 and settled in France. In Paris, the Bermans exhibited at the Galerie Pierre, where their work earned them the name "Neo-Romantics" for its melancholic and introspective qualities, inspired by Pablo Picasso's Blue Period paintings. Eugene Berman studied art at the Académie Ranson; among his teachers, Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, both Nabis, would have a great influence on his work. It was around this time that the artist visited Italy for the first time; Berman's work would begin to take on a decidedly romantic quality.
Eugène Berman's first group exhibition would be held at the Galerie Dürer in Paris, showcasing the "neo-romantics." The success of this first exhibition led to his first solo exhibition at the Galerie l'Étoile. His paintings were praised for their fantastical nature and eventually gave him the opportunity to move to the United States.
Eugène's work was characterized by solitary landscapes with sculptural aand architectural elements, often ruins, rendered in a neoclassical manner. In 1935, Eugène moved to New York, where he would exhibit several times at the Julien Levy Gallery. Neo-romanticism and surrealism, Berman often combined the two styles in his imaginary landscapes. His scenes were intended as a visual commentary on the decline of the modern world. The artist began to direct his artistic talents towards other projects, notably covers for magazines (Vogue, Harper's Bazaar or Town and Country). He further expanded his artistic repertoire when he began to design sets (festivals, theater, opera). Eugène Berman spent much of his time traveling in Europe and the United States, finding a particular affinity for California and the Southwest where he studied desert landscapes (Arizona and New Mexico). Later, in the 1940s, Eugène would settle in Los Angeles where he would marry the actress Ona Munson. In 1950, Italian galleries presented his work alongside works by Salvador Dali and Marcel Duchamp, he would also exhibit at the Instituto de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires. Also that year, Eugène Berman was elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design, becoming a full member in 1954.In America, Eugène became famous as a stage designer for ballet and opera. After his wife's suicide in 1955, he moved to Rome, where Princess Doria-Pamphilj provided him with an apartment and studio in a wing of her palazzo on the Via del Corso. In 1957, he worked with Sylvia Guirey on a new production of Don Giovanni for the Metropolitan Opera.Eugène Berman spent the last years of his life traveling in Egypt and Libya. He continued to paint in Italy until his death in 1972. A retrospective entitled "High Drama: Eugene Berman and the Legacy of the Melancholic Sublime" will be held at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio in 2005.
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