Joseph Bernard
"Mandarin", Red and Black Mixed Media Collage
1990

Name: "Mandarin", Red and Black Mixed Media Collage
Brand: Joseph Bernard
Price: 8500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

This long painting, “Mandarin”, by multimedia artist Joseph Bernard is an exemplary piece from the artist's early work in experimental collage. Evocative of Asian art, carpets in particular, its striking colors beckon the observer like a door to another world, a world of contemplation and poetry perhaps. In the West, the term, mandarin, is associated with the concept of the scholar-official who immersed himself in poetry, literature and Confucian learning in addition to performing civil service duties. The fact that “Mandarin” is the official language of China may, also, bear important significance for the artist who was not only a two-dimensional creator, but a film producer and director. Upon close inspection, one can see in the black areas of the work that Bernard has used strips of film negatives in the collage. Film was a very important creative element for him and he frequently incorporates strips of film in his mixed media pieces. Joseph Bernard was born in Port Chester, New York. He received his BFA from the University of Hartford Art School in 1970 and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1972. From 1972 to 2007 he was a professor of fine arts at Detroit's College for Creative Studies. His work is informed by travels to Provincetown, Southern California, Austin, Nashville and other locales. In an interview with Mary McNichols Bernard notes that his childhood observations of colored stones in water influenced his interest in the abstraction of light, color and movement – found in film – and his two-dimensional mixed media pieces that contain such objects as feathers, dried moonflowers and film fragments that resonate with a luminosity made possible by the application of many layers of polyurethane. “Mandarin” is a powerful example of his multi-faceted creativity. He likes to deal in opposites – the organic and the geometric, urban signage and dried flowers, “metrical deliberation and freefall abandon.” As he states, “In my work, I bring parts to a whole.” Joseph Bernard is one of the well-known faculty who taught at College for Creative Studies (formerly Center for Creative Studies and before that Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts – founded in 1906.) In May of 2007 after nearly four decades Joseph Bernard retired from the Fine Arts Department of the College for Creative studies (CCS). He is currently exploring new approaches to image-making by reassessing his work in photography and film and their connections to collage painting. Other faculty and graduates of CCS include Richard Jerzy, Harry Bertoia, Doug Chaing (currently director of Lucas Film), Stephen Dinehart (game maker, writer, designer connected with The David Lynch Foundation), Tyree Guyton (international artist), Herb Babcock, Jerome Feretti, Kevin Siembieda (writer, designer and publisher of role-playing games), Renee Radell, Philip Pearlstein, Charles McGee (nationally recognized African American sculptor of animal and dancing spirits), Philip Pearlstein (2000 Honorary Doctorate, Modern Realism style), John Louis Krieger (American Modern), William Girard (American Modern), Charles Culver, Henry Heading, Hughie Lee-Smith, Joseph Wesner, Janet Hamrick, Lois Teicher, and Barbara Dorchen. His films have been exhibited at Toronto’s Funnel Theatre, Detroit Institute of Arts, Chicago Filmmakers, Rutgers University, The San Francisco Cinematheque, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Dartmouth College, Indiana University Cinema, Third Man Records in both Nashville & Detroit, Spektrum in Berlin, Dublin's Irish Film Institute, Cineinfinito in Barcelona and NYC’s Museum of Modern Art, among others. An ongoing project is the restoration and archiving of his over 100 silent, Super-8 films made from 1977 to 1985. Slowly, they are being scanned to digital files. His work has been exhibited in the Detroit Institute of Arts, the University of Michigan Art Museum, the National Endowment for the Arts, Cranbrook Academy, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Flint Institute of Art, the Kalamazoo Art Institute, the Michigan Council for the Arts, The Austin School, and the College for Creative Studies, Library Collection.

Creator:

Joseph Bernard (1866 - 1931, French)

Creation Year:

1990

Dimensions:

Height: 66 in (167.64 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)

Medium:

Mixed Media

Period:

Late 20th Century

Condition:

Gallery Location: