Maurice Berger facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Maurice Berger
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Maurice Berger (2011)
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| Born | May 22, 1956 New York City, U.S.
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| Died | March 23, 2020 (aged 63) Copake, New York, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Hunter College Graduate Center of the City University of New York |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cultural History Critical Race Theory Art History Cultural Criticism |
| Institutions | University of Maryland, Baltimore County New York Times |
| Doctoral advisor | Yve-Alain Bois Linda Nochlin |
| Other academic advisors | Rosalind Krauss |
| Influences | W.E.B. Du Bois James Baldwin Toni Morrison Roland Barthes Rosalind Krauss |
Maurice Berger (May 22, 1956 – March 22, 2020) was an American expert in cultural history, a person who organizes art shows (called a curator), and an art critic. He worked as a professor and chief curator at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Berger was known for his studies on how race and visual culture (like images and media) connect in the United States.
He organized many important art shows that looked at the link between race and American art. One famous show was For All The World To See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights. This exhibition, co-organized in 2011 with the National Museum of African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution, showed how images helped shape the fight for racial equality and justice in the U.S.
Maurice Berger passed away on March 22, 2020, in Copake, New York. He was 63 years old. He died from heart failure, which might have been made worse by COVID-19.
About Maurice Berger
Maurice Berger grew up in a public housing project in New York City. This area was home to many Black and Puerto Rican families. His childhood experiences greatly influenced his ideas about race. He once wrote that he saw a lot of racism growing up. He said it was painful to watch and even more painful for his friends to experience.
Berger earned his first degree from Hunter College in 1978. He later received his Ph.D. in art history from The Graduate Center, CUNY in 1988.
In the mid-1980s, he taught art and directed the art gallery at Hunter College. He worked with anthropologist Johnnetta B. Cole on a project called "Race and Representation" in 1987. This project included a book, an art show, and films. He also wrote an important article called "Are Art Museums Racist?" for Art in America.
In the early 1990s, Berger began to focus more on the work of African-American artists, performers, and filmmakers. He organized shows for artists like Adrian Piper and Fred Wilson. He also created special multimedia displays for art exhibitions. These displays included videos and information stations to help people understand the art better. He wrote essays about Black artists, the challenges of art criticism, and the work of photographer Gordon Parks.
In 2011, he curated the exhibition "For All The World To See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights." This show highlighted how cameras and images of Black people in pop culture helped change public opinion during the Civil Rights era. The exhibition featured film clips of famous figures like Paul Robeson and Malcolm X. It also showed magazines like Ebony and Jet, and posters for movies like Shaft.
Art Exhibitions
Maurice Berger organized many art exhibitions that explored race and culture. These included shows for artists Adrian Piper (1999) and Fred Wilson (2001). Both shows traveled to many places in the United States and Canada.
In 2003, he put together an exhibition called White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art. This show featured works by well-known artists such as Cindy Sherman, William Kentridge, and Mike Kelley.
Berger believed that art museums should do more to educate people. He thought they should provide more cultural and social information about the art they displayed. He created detailed multimedia "context stations" for many exhibitions. These stations helped visitors understand the deeper meanings of the artworks. Some of these exhibitions included Action/Abstraction: Pollock, De Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976 at the Jewish Museum (2008). He also worked on Black Male: Representations of Masculinity, 1968–1994 (1994) and The American Century: Art & Culture, 1950–2000 (1999) at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
In 2015, Berger created an exhibition called Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television. This show looked at how modern art from the 1940s to the 1970s influenced television, and how television influenced art. The Jewish Museum, New York and the University of Maryland organized this exhibition. It showed how art, entertainment, and business are connected. The exhibition highlighted how television helped new art styles grow and shaped the look of the era. A book about the exhibition was published by Yale University Press. This book included essays and a timeline of modern American art. The exhibition was also available to view online.
Media Projects
Starting in the mid-1990s, Maurice Berger created short films called "culture stories." These films were collections of clips from old American movies and TV shows. They explored ideas about identity and how people see themselves.
His film Threshold was shown at the 2012 Whitney Biennial, a major art exhibition. The film was inspired by conversations he had with musicians Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran. Threshold featured images from popular culture that related to the historic Civil Rights Movement. A critic from the New York Times said the film showed African-Americans starting new journeys or challenges. Examples included Diana Ross and Michael Jackson on the yellow brick road in “The Wiz” and Denzel Washington as Malcolm X stepping up to a podium. The film's mood was about moving forward and evolving.
Awards and Recognition
Maurice Berger received many awards for his work. For his column "Race Stories" in the Lens Section of the New York Times, he won the 2018 Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography. He also received the 2014 Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
He was given grants from organizations like the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. For his work on the "For All the World to See" part of WNET's Sunday Arts TV show, Berger was nominated for an Emmy Award.
His book White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness (1999) was a finalist for the 2000 Horace Mann Bond Book Award from Harvard University. It also received an honorable mention from the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award. His book for the "For All the World to See" exhibition (2010) was named an "Outstanding Academic Title" by the American Library Association.
In 1993, Berger became the first Fellow at The Vera List Center for Art and Politics. There, he led many programs and publications. The Vera List Center Forum in 2020 started with a special tribute to Maurice Berger, celebrating his important contributions.
