Artwork of the Week!! Sun, Mar 3, 2024 is by Bernard G. Silberstein (1905-1999): "Portrait of Siqueiros", photograph, ca 1940.

Artwork of the Week!! Sunday, March 3, 2024. ?is by Cincinatti photographer Bernard G. Silberstein (1905-1999) ?

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"Portrait of Siqueiros" is a silver-print photograph, done around 1940 and printed sometime later. The image and sheet measures 16-3/4 x 13-3/16 inches and is . This print is ink signed and copyrighted by the photographer in the lower right image. There is a label on the verso that reads ". This is a proof which was never formally "editioned", printed by the photographer in brown/black tones on a white wove photo paper. The photograph is not mounted. The gallery inventory number for this work is 13568.

This rare, ink-signed portrait photograph by Bernard?Silberstein? (1905-1999) is available from the gallery for $1,000.00.

American photographer Bernard Silberstein (1905-1999) built his international reputation doing assignments for National Geographic, Life, Holiday, The New York Times, Time, Colliers, Esquire, Popular Photography, The Camera and the Photographic Society of America (PSA) Journal. His subjects included the king of Morocco and artists of the Mexican muralist school. His photographs of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo have appeared in several books on the famous artist. His work appeared worldwide on album covers, textbooks and advertisements. He was recognized by PSA as one of the top five salon exhibitors in the U.S. in the 1950s. He was awarded a fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, as well as one by PSA in 1951. Silberstein captured this confidant image of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, posed in front of a pillar, dressed in his work clothes.

David Alfaro Siqueiros, muralist, painter, and printmaker, worked alongside Rivera and Orzoco in establishing the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Much of his work reflects the deep social and political struggles of the Mexican people throughout his lifetime, and his own experience as an activist and soldier played key elements in his artistic expression.

Born in Chihuahua City, Mexico on December 29, 1896. His life would take an activist leaning early on. He studied at the Franco-English College in Mexico City beginning in 1908, and it was most likely here, under the tutelage of Marxist teachers, that his awareness of social and political injustices were given life: at only fifteen he would lead his first strike, at the San Carlos Academy (later the Academy of Fine Arts), for a change in its teaching methods. It ended in victory. Later, four years as an active combatant in the Revolution earned him rank as Captain, and in 1918, Siqueiros organized the Congress of Soldier Artists.

His activism and his radical publications were often cause for his arrest, but despite this he constantly created his art. Spending six months in Lecumberri prison in Mexico City in 1930 for participating in a May Day rally, he created 13 woodcuts from scrapwood which he would publish himself upon his release. Confinement in Taxco saw the completion of over one hundred paintings, exhibited in Casino Espanol, and, upon being expelled from Mexico in 1931, he came to Los Angeles and created three works to be shown at Chouinard, the Plaza Art Center, and a private Santa Monica residence. Indeed, until his death, Siqueiros remained a fighter, his beliefs and struggles mirrored by a vast and varied body of work, a man for whom art, revolution, and gangsterism were inseperable. David Alfaro Siqueiros died in Cuernavaca, Mexico on January 6, 1974.

Bernard G. Silberstein was born in Illinois on January 23, 1905. Silberstein's grandfather and namesake had the distinction of being the first Jewish settler in Duluth, Minnesota, as well as a celebrated public figure in politics and business, according to his son. A graduate of the University of Michigan, the younger Silberstein started out his career as an electrical engineer. He came to Cincinnati as a district manager for the Ilg Electric Co., supervising sales activity in four states. But photography, which he took up in 1936, proved to be his true calling.

A self-taught "hobby" photographer, his work garnered enough interest to earn local and then national commissions. He would go on to build an international reputation doing assignments for National Geographic, Life, Holiday, The New York Times, Time, Colliers, Esquire, Popular Photography, The Camera and the Photographic Society of America (PSA) Journal. His subjects included the king of Morocco and artists of the Mexican muralist school and Taller de Grafica Popular. His photographs of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo are among the most well known and have appeared in several books on the famous artist. His work appeared worldwide on album covers, textbooks and advertisements. He was recognized by PSA as one of the top five salon exhibitors in the U.S. in the 1950s, and was awarded a fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, as well as one by PSA in 1951.

Silberstein traveled throughout Europe and the United States judging photography exhibits and lecturing. He also gave weekly photography lectures on WLWT (Channel 5) in the 1950s. For 15 years, beginning in 1959, Silberstein taught classes on hobby photography, darkroom technique, and color photography at the University of Cincinnati night school. He was preceded in death by both of his wives, Harriet L. Kahn and Iola O. Hessler.? Silberstein died in Cincinatti, Ohio on November 21, 1999.

To purchase this work, see other works. or read a biography for Bernard G. Silberstein use this link to our website: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/artist/2183/Silberstein/Bernard

Use this link to view our complete inventory on our website https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory?q=