Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
The Tree
etching
Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
The Judgement of Kant
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
Ravine, 1953
etching
Collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
Things to be Remembered, 1949
etching
Collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
View Through Distorting Spectacles,1950
etching
Collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
They Were All Closed, 1962
etching
Collection of Museum of Modern Art
16 x 19 inches
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
Time Being Day by Day, 1952
etching and aquatint
Collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
34 x 14 inches
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
The Pool of Tears, 1962
photo-etching
Collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
The Unquiet Eye, 1972
etching and aquatint
Collection of Yale University Museum
17 x 13 3/4 inches
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
Woman and Bird
etching
12 3/4 x 12 inches
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
Ambiguous Obstacles, 1985
photo-engraving, pastel and colored pencil
Collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
Charades, 1964
etching
Collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
Time Different from the Present
etching
Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
The Devil's Picnic, 1969
Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
Christmas card for Ethel Spears, 1949
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Vera Berdich (1915-2003)
Plan for Living
etching
Artist Details
Vera
Vera Berdick
Veronika Berdich
Veronica Berdick
Berdich
n/a
n/a
1915
Cicero, Illinois
October 2003
Chicago, Illinois
Czech
Chicago, Illinois
Engraver, Etcher, Mixed Media
Hull House
1946: graduated School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 10-April 23, 1950: Vera Berdich, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (solo)
June 1-July 30, 1950: Fifty-fourth Annual Exhibition of Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Plan for Living, color etching
March 9-31, 1953: Current Ways with Color Prints, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Jun 9-August 28, 1954: Artist Member Exhibition, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
March 8-24, 1955: As They Like It, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
March 31-April 28, 1962: Art to Live With: A Selection from the Joseph Randall Shapiro Student Loan Collection, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
September 26-November 11, 1972: Print Making Techniques: Past and Present, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1995: The Unquiet Eye: Vera Berdich, A Retrospective, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York: They Were All Closed,
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington DC: Cain, 1933-1943, screenprint; The Flying Dutchman, 1975, color etching; Illusion, n.d., color etching (2 versions); Ineconomy, n.d., lithograph
1950: Clyde M. Carr Prize: Fifty-fourth Annual Exhibition of Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Plan for Living, color etching
Vera Berdich Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
did babysitting and housecleaning to pay for books while a student at J. Sterling Morton High School, Cicero, Illinois
1941-?: worked for FAP/WPA
American Steel Company during World War II
photo retouching, Curt Teich postcard factory, Chicago, Illinois while attending night classes at School of the Art Institute of Chicago
1947-1979: teacher, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; founded the etching department; chair of it 1947-1979; mentor to hundreds of students
Parents were Adolph and Agnes Berdich, Czech immigrants. Sister of Lillian Berdich. The family moved frequently, following her father, a tool and die maker who wanted to live on a farm but had little experience doing so. He loved the outdoors, especially hunting and fishing, and bought property in Wisconsin sight-unseen.
She was born to Czech immigrants in Cicero, a suburb south of Chicago. She graduated from grammar
school in 1929 and worked through J. Sterling Morton High School babysitting and housecleaning to pay for her books. Her art instructor there, Claudia Stevenson, encouraged Berdich to study at the School of the Art Institute (SAIC). Berdich began night classes at SAIC, working odd jobs to save money. A friend helped her gain employment with a postcard company, where she did color separation and photo retouching. At age 26, Berdich left home and moved to Chicago, joining the Illinois Arts Project, where she first encountered printmaking. She was instantly taken with the etching medium, especially the opportunity it afforded to explore tonal effects. When World War II began, she took a course in drafting and worked for the American Steel Company. She returned to the SAIC after the war, attending full-time and graduating with a B.A. in 1946. A year later, Berdich was hired by SAIC, where she founded the printmaking department and continued teaching until her retirement in 1979 as a professor emeritus. Berdich used experimental techniques, applying various colored inks by hand to the etching plate to create one-of-a-kind works. This approach to creating layered and subtle shifts in tonality is evident in her prints Things to Be Remembered, 1949, and View Through Distorting Spectacles, 1952. The latter is a fine example of her surrealist etchings, with its repetitive eyes and references to perception couched in a symbolist, dreamlike atmosphere. Berdich was one of the first artists in the United States to develop photographic images on copper plate intaglio, and in 1956 introduced a photo transfer method to canvas and paper. -- from website for Macdowell Colony