The Artist's Biography

Carl Berman Sr., distressed that our plastic world was wiping away the traditional customs and beliefs of the ethnic peoples living in the mountains of the Americas and Asia, was determined to make a faithful record before all was lost. Climbing treacherous trails—often accompanied by his intrepid wife, Blanche—Carl became an anthropologist, sharing briefly the native ways of life and inquiring about their meaning so as to give a true picture, a true portrait, of the individual people as they went about their various activities.

Carl Berman’s paintings masterfully fulfill his belief that “the artist catches and records subtle nuances that somehow elude the rigid field of the camera.” Having an early interest in textiles, he used his brush to portray the color, cut, and texture of native clothing. Knowing how difficult it is to ask a mountaineer to stand for a portrait, one marvels at his skill in speedily recreating such strong visages, while each figure is wrapped in complexly designed, colorful, hand woven clothing. To aid him after he put down his sketchbook, he and his wife made large collections of the native textiles and hats.

One painting of Carl’s—to choose just one example—stands as a testimony to the scientific value of his endeavors. In the painting (Zinacantecans, 1960, oil on canvas, 24x30”), a group of Mayan Zinacantecs and a Chamulan stand before a door from which projects a small palm frond. When I asked contemporary Zinacantecs and Chamulans the meaning of the frond, they replied that it was just a fiesta decoration, not knowing—as did both Carl and I—that in the 1960s it was a sign that promised a store of bootleg Chamulan liquor inside.

Carl painted from the 1950s to the mid-1980s, a time period before ethnic peoples had become self-aware—aware of the value of their native culture and aware of the urgency of preserving it before it disappeared. He would be astonished and pleased to know that because of Blanche’s generosity, his Chiapas paintings will soon hang in the newly created Maya-Zoque Institute of Science and the Arts in San Cristóbal de las Casas, in Chiapas, Mexico. Perhaps one day they will inspire a Maya or a Zoque to pick up a paintbrush!