Deborah Berger
{{Short description|American female artist (1956–2005)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Deborah Berger
| image = Photo of Deborah Berger.jpg
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1956
| birth_place = Englishtown, New Jersey, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2005|05|21|1956}}
| death_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
| field = {{plainlist|
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| training =
| movement = {{plainlist|* Outsider art}}
| works =
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Deborah Berger (1956 – May 21, 2005{{Cite web|url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/orleans/obits/1/b-13.txt|title=B Obituaries Orleans Parish Louisiana|website=US GenWeb Archives|access-date=2 April 2018}}) was an American artist noted for her oeuvre of brightly colored textile works created in knitting and crochet. She is considered an outsider artist and a prodigy.{{cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Roberta|title=Review: A Strange and Wonderful View of Outsider Art|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/27/arts/design/review-a-strange-and-wonderful-view-of-outsider-art.html|accessdate=7 December 2017|publisher=The New York Times Company|date=March 26, 2015}}
Life
Deborah Berger was born in 1956 in Englishtown, New Jersey.[https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/the-autistic-woman-who-made-masterpieces-the-life-and-art-of-deborah-berger-9a7174424d56 "The Autistic Woman Who Made Masterpieces: The life and art of Deborah Berger When she died, her work was thrown in the trash. Now, it’s in museums."], Medium.com, April 28, 2022. Accessed September 25, 2022. "Deborah was born in Englishtown, New Jersey sometime in 1956." Berger was born with autism and attended boarding schools for special needs children in Texas and Pennsylvania.{{cite web|title=Our Visionairies: Deborah Berger|url=https://www.avam.org/artists/deborah-berger|publisher=American Visionary Art Museum|accessdate=2 September 2021}}
Work
Deborah Berger started knitting as a young child. By the age of ten she was creating garments for herself. Wearable works are the focus of much of her creative production. Bands of brilliant color: red, lavender, orange, blue and black, build, stripe after stripe, into coats and skirts, and form complex, sculptural masks and headdresses.{{cite web|last1=Blevins|first1=Beth|title=More on Deborah Berger, the autistic knitter|url=http://beblevins.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-on-deborah-berger-autistic-knitter.html|website=Writing Home|date=17 September 2010 |publisher=Beth Blevins|accessdate=7 December 2017}}
Recognition
Berger's work, over 100 pieces including wearable garments, baskets, blankets, games and masks, was discovered by her family after her death in New Orleans in 2005. The New Orleans Museum of Art inventoried the works, and archival documents pertaining to Berger's work and life, and a selection was sent to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.{{cite book|editor-last1=Rousseau|editor-first1=Valérie|title=When the Curtain Never Comes Down: Performance Art and the Alter Ego|year=2015|publisher=American Folk Art Museum|location=New York City|isbn=978-0912161242|page=136|url=http://www.themagazineantiques.com/article/disturbers-of-the-peace/|accessdate=7 December 2017}}
Collections and exhibits
Deborah Berger's work is primarily held in the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Her pieces have been lent to other institutions for exhibitions, including the 2015 exhibit When the Curtain Never Comes Down at the American Folk Art Museum.{{cite web|title=Exhibitions: When the Curtain Never Comes Down March 26–July 5, 2015|url=https://folkartmuseum.org/exhibitions/when-the-curtain-never-comes-down/|publisher=American Folk Art Museum|accessdate=7 December 2017}}
References
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External links
- 2015 [https://folkartmuseum.org/programs/behind-the-mask-57/ Behind the Mask: Performance, Ritual, and the Artist]
- 2011 [http://experimentalfashion.blogspot.com/2011/10/deborah-berger-crochet.html DEBORAH BERGER! CROCHET!!!]
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Category:Textile artists from New Jersey
Category:20th-century American women textile artists
Category:20th-century American textile artists
Category:American outsider artists
Category:American women outsider artists
Category:American artists with disabilities
Category:21st-century American women artists
Category:People from Englishtown, New Jersey