Jeff Berner, a FLUXUS Member and Correspondence Artist

Although there are many more individuals we could inform you about; the correspondence series is going to wrap up with Jeff Berner, an artist that is currently alive and letting his creativity shine. He is known for various styles of art including photography, portraits, and illustrations for books and magazines. Berner even published some books which can be purchased through Amazon.com. He also created a diorama series which was exhibited at galleries in Los Angeles and two additional locations in Paris. Berner has won awards and has taught at three different institutions including Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco. Berner currently lives in Paris with his wife Azar who does painting.

Now let’s take a stroll back in time, Berner became involved with the FLUXUS group back in 1965. What exactly is FLUXUS? Well, it is an international group of conceptual/performance artists. According to Henry Flynt, “Fluxus embraced many of the concepts and practices associated with the post-war avant-garde of western Europe and North America” and incorporated poetry, random music, art, and lettrism. The term fluxus actually comes from the Latin word for “flow” and was conceived by a gentleman by the name of George Maciunas who was a writer, performer, and composer. The first grouping of FLUXUS festivals took place in Germany. Furthermore, it was this movement that united artists throughout the world and many of those involved with FLUXUS took part in Correspondence Art. 🙂

Click on these links for some interesting information regarding this neat group/movement:

http://www.fluxus.org/

http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10457

 

For more about Jeff Berner:

http://www.jeffberner.com/

Collagraphy, Lithography, and Serigraphy

Collagraphy refers to a printing technique in which proofs are pulled from a block on which the artwork or design is built up like a collage, creating a relief.

A Clear Space is an example of a collagraph

Lithography is a printing technique that uses a planographic process in which prints are pulled on a special press from a flat stone or metal surface that has been chemically sensitized so that ink sticks only to the design areas, and is repelled by the non-image areas. Lithography was invented in 1798 in Solnhofen, Germany by Alois Senefelder. The early history of lithography is dominated by great French artists such as Daumier and Delacroix, and later by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Braque, and Miro.

Night Migration is an example of a lithograph

Serigraphy (silkscreen) can be described as a printing technique that makes use of a squeegee to force ink directly into a piece of paper or canvas through a stencil creating an image on a screen or silk or other fine fabric with an impermeable substance. Serigraphy differs from most other printing in that its color areas are paint films rather than printing-ink stains.

Beverly Hills Forest is an example of a serigraph