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Eugene Berman Collage in Original Frame

About the Item

This haunting image by Eugene Berman was painted on a sheet of paper cut in the shape of a heart, mounted to a paint-speckled ground, encircled with metal shavings, and placed in a frame of the artist’s own devising. Berman wrote the title, Radiograph of a Heart, on the back. It refers to the medical X-rays that doctors had recently come to rely on. Yet Berman’s point seems to be that while a heart can be monitored scientifically, the emotions associated with it lie beyond the power of medical science. Russian by birth, Berman fled St. Petersburg during the Revolution and settled in Paris. Later, as a Jew, he fled the Nazi advance and took refuge in New York and Hollywood. His peace of mind, however, was shattered by the suicide of his wife, actress Una Munson (who played Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind). That distressing event — “Don’t follow me” she admonished in her suicide note — cast him adrift once again. Finally, he came to rest in Rome where he would pass the years that remained to him. Along with his brother Leonid Berman, Pavel Tchelitchew, and Christian Bérard, Eugene Berman was a Neo-Romantic painter. The works by that school were avidly acquired in the 1930s and 1940s by, among others, Alfred Barr, founding director of the Museum of Modern Art. Since then they have fallen out of favor. Should fashion reverse itself yet again, perhaps these paintings will emerge from storage and resume their places on hollowed walls.
  • Creator:
    Eugene Berman (Artist)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 26.5 in (67.31 cm)Width: 21.5 in (54.61 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
  • Style:
    Modern (Of the Period)
  • Place of Origin:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1945
  • Condition:
    Wear consistent with age and use.
  • Seller Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1061413064192
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