"Trees in a Raging Wildfire" Expressionist Landscape Oil Painting By Pat Berger

This abstract landscape painting by Pat Berger is an intense artwork, with its dramatically textured brushstrokes and a powerful and dynamic sense of movement. Deep green trees appear to be surrounded by the flames of a raging wildfire, conjuring up imagery reminiscent of California's devastating blazes.
By cleverly manipulating light, shadows, and colours, Pat Berger gives this scene a palpable sense of three-dimensionality—as if it were popping off the canvas.

Pat Berger is an acclaimed painter who has captivated and provoked audiences with her remarkable works. Born in New York in 1929, her pieces have been featured in many galleries and museums, each providing a unique outlook on life. Through her latest collection of trees and branches - including the one we present today - Pat Berger has managed to connect a powerful emotion between nature and human life.
Pat Berger’s career spans several decades of painting that alternate between figures and landscape and are an examination of the natural landscape and social narratives.
She received her training in painting at the Art Centre School of Design and U.C.L.A. during World War II and absorbed paintings’ modernist concerns for expression, composition, and colour-light interaction. Pat set out capturing figures in their environments expressing early on the need to capture their sense of “…being alone.” Her lifelong interest in people’s lives took her to crowded beaches, parks, and boardwalks where she began recording such scenes. Berger emphasised the need to, “…create a mood or psychological element to involve the viewer”, which was carried out in her acclaimed series on the homeless, surveying homeless life in the United States. In addition to her involvement with figures, Berger’s works of desert landscapes, wild plants, and cacti re-emphasise her central concerns with nature and beauty.
She has been the subject of recent solo shows including the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, Santa Barbara, and the University of Judaism, Los Angeles, and has been the recipient of the fellowship for The Julia and David White Art Colony, Costa Rica, a National Watercolour Society Purchase Award and a California Community Foundation, Brody Arts Fund Fellowship Award. Her work was featured in the documentary video, “Not In My Neighbourhood” produced by Iraj Shadaram, and “Trouble in Paradise” a documentary film by Gary Glazer. Berger’s work is featured in numerous public collections including the San Diego Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Skirball Museum, and the Palm Springs Desert Museum.

REFERENCE NUMBER: LU654311826122
PERIOD: 1970-1979
CONDITION: Excellent
MEASUREMENTS: Height: 41.13" Width: 38.38" Depth: 1.38"
COUNT: 1
MATERIAL: Oil
CREATOR: Pat Berger