Making Statements

Don인터넷바카라�t miss 인터넷바카라�Siri Berg: Statements인터넷바카라� at The House of Sweden, opening on March 5 and running until May 12. 

• Siri Berg: Statements
  House of Sweden and the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC is welcoming the doyenne of Scandinavian artists in New York City, Siri Berg, for an extensive solo exhibition opening in March.
  The show is the third in a series of retrospectives devoted to Berg인터넷바카라�s work, which began with In Color (2016-2017) at The Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York and was followed by A Life In Color (2018) at Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, and brings another element to the artist인터넷바카라�s work.
  인터넷바카라�The major difference this exhibit will bring,인터넷바카라� says Curator Peter Hionas, "is the interplay of Siri Berg's paintings against black walls as opposed to white walls in the earlier exhibits. The interaction of color that will happen with the paintings for the first time being seen against black walls will be monumental.인터넷바카라�
  The exhibit will be staged in two distinct gallery spaces인터넷바카라�light and dark인터넷바카라�at House of Sweden, each space offering a different investigative look at the varied interests and aesthetic experimentations of Berg인터넷바카라�s career as a painter, collagist, sculptor, colorist, and abstractionist.
  In Alfred Nobel Hall, the gallery인터넷바카라�s black walls will be adorned with a selection of Berg인터넷바카라�s vintage and new paintings, dating back to 1967 and up to 2018. In the combined Fyra and Fem rooms, which are outfitted with light walls and an expansive northern window overlooking the gardens, a curated selection of Berg인터넷바카라�s assemblage works, wood block prints, and painting studies will be on exhibit.
  Siri Berg is a veteran artist who has exhibited around the world since 1970. Her works are hanging at the Guggenheim, the Jewish Museum, in Coca Cola인터넷바카라�s board room and in the homes of private collectors.
  She enjoyed abstract art from the beginning in a subdued fashion; the structure and color you will experience came later. When I ask her why she chose to paint in the abstract, the reply comes after some time of quiet reflection 인터넷바카라� 인터넷바카라�I didn인터넷바카라�t want to make it my life to copy or reproduce reality, it simply didn인터넷바카라�t feel as much of a challenge. While on a canvas or project, I lose myself completely in the creation itself, creating from the inside and out rather than the other way around.인터넷바카라�

• Three main bodies of work
  Assemblages (made from found industrial objects or random leftover add-ons), collages (with Japanese woodblock printing) and paintings are what Berg is known for. Like life, her work often comes across as a journey인터넷바카라�not always with a definite end, but more often with an end where it once began. Her journey in color seemed to reappear as a new beginning when we met in September and October of 2016.
  There인터넷바카라�s something zen about the person and her work. The art of Siri Berg is simple yet complex and very, very sophisticated인터넷바카라�one review compared it to a bento box with beautifully arranged sushi. How ever you distinguish her work, it is abstract art at its most organized and elegant, and her sense of color is simply sublime. It rarely needs words인터넷바카라�you love it or 인터넷바카라� you don인터넷바카라�t. Whether you do or don인터넷바카라�t is not really important. Her art moves your mind.
  For Berg herself, art should be a multi-level experience. An initial reaction might be hate or love (or the worst case scenario: no opinion). Then, one can begin interpreting. The experience is determined by the viewer인터넷바카라�s point of reference, background and experience.

• Getting here
  But let인터넷바카라�s go back to the young Berg for a moment인터넷바카라�the one who left a turbulent Sweden and Europe in order to come to America in 1939.
  인터넷바카라�I wanted to grow up and was eager to go,인터넷바카라� she says. 인터넷바카라�I wanted to become my own person.인터넷바카라�
  Though her mother didn인터넷바카라�t much like the thought of young Siri crossing the ocean, the political situation worked in Berg인터넷바카라�s favor. She left Sweden via ship from Norway to Baltimore인터넷바카라�a journey that took 28 days.
  인터넷바카라�We played bridge the entire 28 days,인터넷바카라� she says.
  In America, a bus took her to Columbus Circle in New York City where her Aunt Henia was waiting for her.
  인터넷바카라�Thus the adventure was over,인터넷바카라� Berg says with a smile. 인터넷바카라�And six months later my parents joined me in the U.S.인터넷바카라�
  In New York, Berg studied fashion and interior design, and her art fell by the wayside. She married twice and had two sons. When she was in her early thirties she began painting on a bridge table in the master bedroom of the apartment she shared with her family in Riverdale. When one son moved out, his room became her studio.
  인터넷바카라�I felt that it was finally my time to work with fine arts. In the early days, I relied on stories in order to work. I was inspired by Yeats, and I did work modeled after Arthur Schnitzler인터넷바카라�s play La Ronde (인터넷바카라�Der Reigen인터넷바카라�). It is a play with 10 episodes, but since I인터넷바카라�ve always been attracted to the number 7, I made it into seven visual episodes.인터넷바카라�
  Eventually Berg needed a studio of her own. Her stepdaughter told her it was time to leave Riverdale behind and get into the swing of things, so she urged her to move into Manhattan.
  인터넷바카라�I went searching for a studio,인터넷바카라� Berg recalls, 인터넷바카라�but buying one was quite an undertaking in those days. And I remember thinking 인터넷바카라�what am I doing with the family savings?인터넷바카라� But I got my studio in 1981!인터넷바카라�
  This Soho studio is where she lives and works to this day. It인터넷바카라�s an amazing space sparsely decorated with stylish furniture, including a couple Mies van der Rohe chairs and an old dalahäst.
  The exploration of circles that evolved during the time of La Ronde morphed from colors into a series of black and white paintings that had put Berg in the international limelight for the first time in the late 1970s. She is also interested in religious mysticism, which led to a long stretch of work inspired by the Kabbalah and the 10 creative forces that intervene between the infinite unknown and our physical world. In the mid-1990s she started working in a more linear way with straight lines and bars, leading to the present period after 2002, which is all about color.
  Berg also began teaching color theory at Parson인터넷바카라�s School of Design인터넷바카라�something she did up until only a few years ago.
  인터넷바카라�I liked teaching, which I did for over 30 years. It was very satisfying for me to watch a student and the transformation he or she went through during those 15 weeks, and knowing that I contributed to that change. Then at one point I felt I did not want to continue with the highly regulated side of being a teacher.인터넷바카라�
  Siri Berg no longer needs a story in order to work. Maybe New York itself is story enough; it certainly gives her energy, and her studio인터넷바카라�as immaculately organized and beautiful as her art인터넷바카라�is full of projects. Berg at present experiments with the more subdued grey, not just any grey but every nuance of the color, from Holland warm grey to cold grey and often back again. And the artist인터넷바카라�s own hands and meticulous organization as always shape the colors. Pigment after pigment is lifted to create every subtle variation of grey that has yet to meet the eye.
  인터넷바카라�What I am doing today has evolved through the years,인터넷바카라� she says. 인터넷바카라�But in the end it인터넷바카라�s all about color, and I always have a goal and a method.인터넷바카라�

• House of Sweden, 2900 K St NW, Washington, DC 20007
  

• By Ulf Barslund Martensson