Description
A career-spanning examination of the work of Robert Bergman and its place within the history of American art
This unprecedented retrospective offers a detailed analysis of Robert Bergman’s psychologically penetrating art across the breadth of his career. Shaped by the vocabulary of painting as much as photography, Bergman’s often wrenching, beautifully evocative photographs tumble headlong into the emotional, physical, and mental struggles of living, challenging us to look deeply within ourselves and to reconsider how we relate to strangers. Long heralded by luminaries across different disciplines—including the author Toni Morrison, art historian Meyer Schapiro, and social activist Peter Gabel—Bergman’s images offer a counterpoint to contemporary society’s preoccupations with identity, division, and complaint.
Introducing the so-called underground legend to a new generation, this volume presents the first full survey of Bergman’s work from the mid-1960s to the present, including many previously unpublished images, and essays from art historians, artists, and academics that contextualize the circumstances of Bergman’s life and work and examine how his pictorial representations resonate with the human experience in America.
Distributed for the Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Exhibition Schedule:
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX
(April 27–August 3, 2025)
Book Information
ISBN 9780300280029
Author John Rohrbach
Format Hardback
Page Count 220
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
This unprecedented retrospective offers a detailed analysis of Robert Bergman’s psychologically penetrating art across the breadth of his career. Shaped by the vocabulary of painting as much as photography, Bergman’s often wrenching, beautifully evocative photographs tumble headlong into the emotional, physical, and mental struggles of living, challenging us to look deeply within ourselves and to reconsider how we relate to strangers. Long heralded by luminaries across different disciplines—including the author Toni Morrison, art historian Meyer Schapiro, and social activist Peter Gabel—Bergman’s images offer a counterpoint to contemporary society’s preoccupations with identity, division, and complaint.
Introducing the so-called underground legend to a new generation, this volume presents the first full survey of Bergman’s work from the mid-1960s to the present, including many previously unpublished images, and essays from art historians, artists, and academics that contextualize the circumstances of Bergman’s life and work and examine how his pictorial representations resonate with the human experience in America.
Distributed for the Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Exhibition Schedule:
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX
(April 27–August 3, 2025)
Book Information
ISBN 9780300280029
Author John Rohrbach
Format Hardback
Page Count 220
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
