Theresa Bernstein: A Century in Art

“Theresa Bernstein: A Century in Art” is an exhibit currently on view in the James Gallery at the CUNY Graduate Center at 35^th Street and Fifth Avenue. (If you stand on the southeast corner of that intersection you can look into the windows of the gallery and see numerous Bernstein paintings.) Bernstein lived from 1890 to 2002 (do the math!) and had work exhibited in every decade of the 20^th century. She was a contemporary of Edward Hopper and the painters of the Ashcan School. She made a great many paintings of New York life, several of which are in the exhibit and which I’ve posted pictures of below. She had a vibrant style, awhirl with life and color, whether documenting the antics of the rich, the talented or the working poor and she drew on a host of different influences, including the French impressionists and some of the avant-garde painters of her era.

 

Lilies of the Field, 1915 

 

I was especially taken with “In the Elevated,” 1916, in which she had her parents pose as models for a painting of the interior view of an elevated train car in Manhattan.

 

She sketched the next picture from a perch across the street from the New York Public Library as she watched an Armistice Parade:

Flags of the Allies, 1918

 

And here’s a picture of activity inside the New York Public Library:

New York Public Library Interior, ca. 1918

 

And another Armistice Day painting:

 

Armistice Day Parade: The Altar of Liberty, 1918

 

Here are working class mothers in Park Slope, Brooklyn:

 

Baby Carriage and Laundry Day, Park Slope, Brooklyn, 1923

 Unlike the members of the Ashcan School, Bernstein did not lampoon the rich nor condemn high culture.  Here she paints the activities of the very rich at a party for heiress Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney:

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s Reception, 1924

 And a performance of Verdi’s Requiem:

Verdi’s Requiem,  1930

 

Other paintings:

Reading the War News, 1915

Searchlights on the Hudson, 1915

The Milliners, 1919

The Immigrants, 1923

Here are some interesting quotes from Gail Levin, the curator of the exhibit:

“I discovered Bernstein while researching Edward Hopper,” said Levin, an acclaimed biographer of Hopper. “She was once more popular than Hopper, with whom she sometimes showed during the 1910s and 1920s.” The current exhibition, she said, “explores how fame is fleeting, but shows that the quality of her work has outlived fad and fashion.”

According to Levin, Bernstein’s style began as a kind of realism, often linked by critics to the Ashcan School, but evolved into something more expressionist. Musically inclined, she was a fan of opera, dance, and jazz. She painted Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Charlie Parker, as well as Loie Fuller, Martha Graham, and Verdi’s Requiem.

The exhibit is on view until January 18, 2014.

For more info about Theresa Bernstein and this exhibit, go to this website:

Theresa Bernstein: A Century in Art

Here are YouTube links to two short videos I shot inside the gallery, showing some of the paintings.

Silent tour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hs2MgDfQ_s

Guided tour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ83QMVpnPI