Mersad
Berber - biography
Mersad Berber was born on 1 January 1940 in a westem
Bosnian township of Bosanski Petrovac. In 1963 he was in
Ljubljana, completing his painting studies at the Academy
of Fine Arts in the class of Maksim Sedej and attending
his M.A. in the graphic arts with professor Riko Debenjak.
Fifteen years later, Berber himself received a teaching
position at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo. Since
1965 and his first one-man show at the City Gallery of Ljubljana,
the career of this remarkable artist has been on sharp rise.
Today Berber, as one of the best known graphic artists in
the world, who was also included in the Tate Gallery collection
in 1984, makes the aesthetic and ethical identiry of his
homeland known to the millions of people. Nearly forty years
of his artistic activity Berber spent as a true homo universalis
n he has heen occupied with painting, graphic art, tapestry,
illustrating and preparing bibliographic editions, graphic
and poetic maps. His scenography and costume design come
to life in theatres in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sarajevo and Washington.
In 1985 Berber finished Tempo Secondo, his own animated
cartoon. Since 1966 Mersad Berber has received more than
fifty awards. Among many Intemational prizes it is inevitable
to mention the Gold Medail and Honorary Diploma at the First
International Exhihition of Graphic Art in Trieste, the
first award at the 11th International Biennale in Sao Paolo,
Honorary Prix at the 10th International Biennale of Graphic
Art in Tokyo, the first award at the 7th Mediterranean Biennale
in Alexandria, award of ICOM in Monte Carlo, the Krakow
City award at the 4th International Biennale of graphic
art and the Lalit Kala Academy Grand Prix at the 5th Indian
Triennale in New Delhi. Krakow Grand Prix in 1997, an Ostende
exibition entitled "Between earth and heaven"
and recent one "Artist of the ideal" in Verona,
selected by famous art critic Edward Lucy Smith,just confirmed
Berber as one of the most significant contemporary artists.
Comprehensive monography studies of Mersad Berberis art
were published by Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana in 1980 and
1985, by Sol Intercontinental, Ljubljana in 1997 and by
E&A Agency, Zagreb in 2000. Since 1992 Mersad Berber
has been living and working in Zagreb, Croatia.
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