This is a demonstration of the ISM WPA image gallery
South Chicago Series #7
Bernece Berkman (1911 - 1979)
opaque watercolor on paper, 1937
22 x 30 inches
The South Chicago Series of paintings by Bernece Berkman was part of her work with the Chicago WPA Fine Artists' Easel Program. As a Social Realist, she chose to paint subjects such as workers and tenement dwellers. They showed the difficult lives of working class people. She worked in an expressionistic style of bright colors and Cubist shapes.
Opaque watercolor differs from transparent watercolor in the use of white pigment instead of bare paper for white areas, and the thicker application of the paint, which contains a smoothing agent (gum arabic) and a white chalk.
Collection of the Illinois State Museum
photograph by Gary Andrashko
ISM Accession #: 1943.16/536
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