Wallace Berman

(American, 1926–1976)

Wallace Berman was an American artist known for his mystical photo assemblages made with a Verifax photocopier and painted text. Culling from the Kabbalah, popular culture, jazz music, and American folklore, Berman’s psychedelic art manifested itself in many forms, including cryptic letters to friends, the publication Semina, and writing Hebrew script upon stones. The poet Jack Hirschman once said of his work, “All his images have about them a texture of tough bodily concentrated realism mixed with demonic funk-sense of the forlorn and violent eros of wanderers in the lush Los Angeles night of the 1960s.” Born on February 18, 1926 in Staten Island, NY, he and his family moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1930s. During the 1940s, he became involved with the West Coast jazz scene, attended art classes at the Chouinard Art Institute, and worked in a furniture factory. By the early 1950s, Berman was involved within the milieu of the Beat Movement in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. He had his first exhibition at the famed Ferus Gallery in 1957, and counted Dennis Hopper, Edward Kienholz, Jay DeFeo, and Allen Ginsberg among his friends. The artist died in a car accident on his 50th birthday on February 18, 1976 in Topanga Canyon, CA. Berman’s contribution to the culture of California in the 1960s was both influential and largely forgotten. In 2016, Kohn Gallery staged “Wallace Berman: American Aleph,” the first comprehensive retrospective of the artist in nearly 40 years. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.

Wallace Berman Artworks

Wallace Berman (179 results)
Greeting card, 1962

Wallace Berman

Greeting card, 1962

Sale Date: October 3, 2012

Auction Closed

Greeting card, 1960–1969

Wallace Berman

Greeting card, 1960–1969

Sale Date: May 21, 2012

Auction Closed

Studio Exhibition Announcement, 1965

Wallace Berman

Studio Exhibition Announcement, 1965

Sale Date: May 21, 2012

Auction Closed

Untitled (Portrait of Berman), 1960–1969

Wallace Berman

Untitled (Portrait of Berman), 1960–1969

Sale Date: May 21, 2012

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1960–1969

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1960–1969

Sale Date: May 21, 2012

Auction Closed

Ephemera and correspondences, 1963–1966

Wallace Berman

Ephemera and correspondences, 1963–1966

Sale Date: May 6, 2012

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1965

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1965

Sale Date: November 10, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1965–1976

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1965–1976

Sale Date: September 21, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1965

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1965

Sale Date: September 21, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1965

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1965

Sale Date: September 21, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled

Wallace Berman

Untitled

Sale Date: September 20, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1967

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1967

Sale Date: January 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1964

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1964

Sale Date: January 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1964–1965

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1964–1965

Sale Date: January 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1970

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1970

Sale Date: January 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1964

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1964

Sale Date: January 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1963

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1963

Sale Date: January 11, 2011

Auction Closed

Invitation, 1963

Wallace Berman

Invitation, 1963

Sale Date: November 11, 2010

Auction Closed

Scope, 1965

Wallace Berman

Scope, 1965

Sale Date: November 11, 2010

Auction Closed

Untitled (Topanga), 1967

Wallace Berman

Untitled (Topanga), 1967

Sale Date: November 11, 2010

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1976

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1976

Sale Date: September 22, 2010

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1964–1976

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1964–1976

Sale Date: September 22, 2010

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1960

Wallace Berman

Untitled, 1960

Sale Date: April 27, 2010

Auction Closed

Cmn/Denominator Mic.W736 Thmb. Belli Bellini , 1965

Wallace Berman

Cmn/Denominator Mic.W736 Thmb. Belli Bellini , 1965

Sale Date: September 14, 2008

Auction Closed