Born in Russia, Berman moved to New York as a child. He studied at the Educational Alliance Art School, a haven for Jewish artists, and shared a studio with fellow student, Moses Soyer. He also studied at New York's National Academy and later with Charles Hawthorne, the founder of the Cape Cod School of Art. By the end of the 1920s he was recognized as an artist in the Social Realist mode. During the Depression he could be found on the sidewalks of Washington Square along with such artists as Jackson Pollock, Willem DeKooning and Alice Neel, selling his paintings to passersby. He found employment as an easel artist in New Deal programs, and received commissions for three Post Office murals. In the 1940s, his wife urged him to seek more steady employment, and he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a house painter while continuing to paint and exhibit in local galleries.The Riverfront (1934)Train Station (c.1940)
Critical Analysis
While Berman's work fits in comfortably with that of many other artists of the period, his compositions were often striking. He liked to paint urban scenes that showed the scope of the manufactured landscape, including human figures as minor elements of the overall scene. In this manner he could make a quiet commentary, so appropriate to the Depression Era, of the way in which society seemed to minimize its human component. Berman's palette was dominated by browns and other deep tones, but he used light effectively to dramatize his compositions.
