Homage to Yosl Bergner: Illustrations to Franz Kafka's Oeuvre

The exhibition marks the 90th birthday of Yosl Bergner, master of realism and fantasy, and illustrates a unique facet in his rich, diverse painterly world.
Kafka's oeuvre has been recurring in Bergner's work since the 1940s, when, still living in Australia, he was "caught," as he says, by the Jewish author's stories. In the 1950s he began illustrating Kafka's work—first with thin ink sketches characterized by a frantic free line, and later with color paintings. The seeds for the deep connection between Bergner and Kafka's work may have been planted by the painter's father, the poet Melech Ravitch, who had translated the story "A Country Doctor" already in 1924.
The exhibition presents a selection of illustrations from the artist's collection, made during the 1950s for two Kafka novels, The Trial and The Castle, and two short stories, "Metamorphosis" and "The Verdict."