Over the last 50 years, Judith Bernstein's monumental practice has cemented her as a firecracker and provocateur in the arts. After graduating from the Yale MFA program in 1967, Bernstein has used scale, shape and color in monumental, highly charged, autobiographical paintings to explore the inextricable links between the political and sexual, identity, injustice and rage. Evolving out of her early, graffiti-inspired works, the artist turned to the 1944 thriller "Gaslight," featuring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, for her most recent series. In "Gasligting," Bernstein wields her signature iconography toward her investigation of gaslighting, a psychological term with material, social effect, laying her truth on the battleground in the war on perception that abusers charge against their victims.
Gasligting Forever, is a quintessential work from the artist's 2019 Gasligting series, where she uses sexual imagery to investigate gender dynamics, ego and stardom through a uniquely feminine[female?] lens. The swirling, fluorescent composition forces the viewer to question their judgment and perception as the eye parses the piercing gaze of the figures, wavering between violence and whimsy with a palpable, turbulent energy exploding out of the canvas through the sharpness of the fluorescent hues. To complement, each piece is hand-embellished by the artist with both pencil and fluorescent acrylic, a personal nod to her singular visual language through her iconographic signatures, both in reproduction and at original conception.
"The mission of ART AT A TIME LIKE THIS is aligned with my own mission: to provide a platform for art that responds directly to the social and political events of today," says Bernstein on the collaboration. "I can't overstate the importance of this non-profit organization's objective to present art that engages the public directly. The influence of art is immeasurable and the intention matters."
Judith Bernstein
Gasligting Forever, 2022
30 x 22 inches
Screenprint
Limited edition of 25 with 8 APs and 1PP
Hand-embellished, signed, and numbered by the artist
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