Michael Bergt has worked primarily in egg tempera for over thirty years. He co-founded The Society of Tempera Painters and served as the organization’s president for twelve years. Working primarily with the human figure, Michael’s paintings refer to a range of interests, including classical myths, sensuality, the human condition, and topical events. He is represented by Nuart Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Featuring new work by MICHAEL BERGT
May 19 – June 4, 2023, Santa Fe, NM
Opening: May 19, 5-7 pm
May 29 – June 16, 2023
Opening: Thursday, June 1, 6-9pm
JULY 3 – JULY 14, 2023
Art from 8th Century BC to today will greet you in Rome! In this workshop, I will share traditional techniques of preparing and working on toned paper, how to work up preliminary tonal drawings and transferring those drawings to a true, rabbit skin/chalk panel, how to make egg tempera from scratch, and build up the jewel-like surface, and, for those interested, applying gold leaf using water gilding.
PASATIEMPO, November 20, 2020 by Michael Abatemarco
A winged female figure emerges, newly born, from a chrysalis. She clings desperately to the exterior of her wormlike shell, unwilling to let go. Rendered mostly in black and white, Michael Bergt’s ink drawing Chrysalis V does have some color: the figure’s gold-leafed wings. Except for that, it appears unfinished, echoing the figure’s reluctance to fully embrace what she’s become. Bergt is depicting a moment in flux. The figure is at the precipice of a crucial event: the moment when she learns that instead of falling, she can fly.
Michael Bergt is the featured artist in the latest book in the Imaginaire series published by Fantasmus. Each volume in the series presents internationally known artists working in contemporary realism…with a twist. Other artists in this volume include Michael Hiep, David Bowers, Severine Pineaux, Claus Brusen, Peter Swift, Gabriele Esau and others.
MICHAEL BERGT SELECTED AS ONE OF 8 ARTISTS TO REPRESENT THE UNITED STATES
The BP Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait painting competition in the world, representing the pinnacle of global artists who are creating contemporary portraiture. With a first prize of £35,000, and a total prize fund of £74,000, the Award is aimed at encouraging artists to focus upon and develop this aspect of their work.
The BP Portrait Award 2018 exhibition was on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England from 14 June to 23 September 2018. It is in its fortieth year at the National Portrait Gallery, and continues to be a must see highlight of the annual global art calendar.
“Michael Bergt has been in deep dialogue with art history over the course of his more than thirty-year career. Working across drawing, sculpture, and primarily egg tempera painting, Bergt has engaged art’s long history of grappling with representational and abstract sensibilities. Inspired by early Renaissance classical mythology, and other diverse religious and spiritual imagery, his artwork represents his own play with expression and interpretation of the contemporary human condition. While grounded in these art historical and visual traditions, Bergt also profoundly breaks from these as he creates his own cast of mythic characters. with their own poetic inclinations and relationships informed by modern dialogues around pressing topics such as gender and sexuality.”
In 2007, Michael and Ken Wilber talked about why some viewers of art just seem to “get it” while others don’t. The conversation was taped for the Integral Life website’s Art Galleries section. Listen to their conversation: