AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

While recovering from tuberculosis, John Bernhardt was influenced to pursue the arts by his roommate, Herman Ziegner. Ziegner introduced Bernhardt to both the literary and visual aspects of art, allowing John to have a well rounded conceptual grasp for his approach. His continued education, especially that under Boardman Robinson at the Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, aided Bernhardt stylistically and intellectually. Well educated and living in New York City, Bernhardt was able to take a firm yet emotive approach to his artwork, exploring ideas and concepts of modernity through printmaking.

One of his early prints done in New York was The Demagogue, 1950. In this print we can see some influence from his education under Boardman Robinson. The man, who we can assume to be a demagogue, stands proud making a notion of leadership with his left hand raised up in the air. Contrastingly, his face is withered and unexpressive. His eyes are dark and sunken into his face, unable to truly command his people. In the background, the word War is printed over a banner reading The Demagogue, shielding the banner from clear view. The Demagogue, who we can only assume is the man in the picture, is using the concept of war to shield the truth from the people he is motioning to. One cannot help but think about the actions of the Nazis and Fascists when they think about a modern demagogue in the 1950s. Bernhardt was living in the Lower East Side, a prominently Jewish neighborhood, when he made this print and must have felt some sensitivity towards the horrific treatment of Jews in Europe during World War II. Although in no way does the man resemble Adolph Hitler, the connection is clear. The idea that he does not resemble Hitler extends Bernhardt’s aversion to demagogues and says something about his ideals on staying educated and not adhering to propaganda.

Bernhardt also had an interest in the modern achievements of his environment. Living in New York City, he was close to some of the greatest products of industrialization and modernity. According to his wife, Bunny, he would frequently visit the Brooklyn Bridge and make sketches which would later be turned into woodcuts . He also made prints of Queens bridge, harbor storage tanks, and a power plant. Each of these prints focus on geometric elements forming abstract representations of these technological innovations. In Harbor Storage Tanks we see a bridge in the front with several round, dome shapes behind it representing the storage tanks. Although very abstract, the print does not seem particularly frightening. In Queensbridge the subject matter is barely recognizable.

Bernhardt moved to several cities after New York until he settled in Santa Barbara in 1959. At that time, many California artists were working in assemblage. The assemblage medium fit Bernhardt’s approach to modernity very well. Whereas the subjects of his woodprints were often modern, industrialized sites, he was able to use actual pieces and scraps of industrialized products to create his assemblages. In The First Airplane, a 1962 sculpture, we see the Bernhardt’s interest in a machine aesthetic. The sculpture is made up of mass produced wheels that look like cogs in a machine, attached to various scraps of metal. It is abstract in the sense that it does not look anything like one’s conception of an airplane. Nothing about the sculpture tells the viewer that this is something that can possible fly in the air. In fact, although it looks like a machine, a closer look shows that its only function is that of what it is: a sculpture. Bernhardt is making a critique on many levels here. The choice of materials is a critique on the industrialized world and the junk and refuse that it leaves behind. The material is no longer needed for its intended industrial purpose and is discarded for newer technology much like how the first airplane has become obsolete and left behind in favor of newer more technologically advanced airplanes. Ironically, because the first airplane is obsolete and because it is the first, its function is now to be looked at in a museum setting, much like Bernhardt’s The First Airplane. Bernhardt would work in assemblage for the rest of his career. His most influential works came out of this medium, which seems so appropriate for a man so influenced and inspired by the modern world.