1912 - 1996

Factsheet

  • Top-ranked work: Black Pitcher
  • Died: 1996
  • Typical colors: espresso
  • Art period: Modern
  • Corpus themes: genre paintings
  • Mediums: oil on canvas
  • Lifespan: 84 years
  • Nationality: United States

The Artistic Vision of Bernice Cross

Bernice Cross was an American painter and artist born in Iowa City, United States. Throughout a professional career spanning five decades, she developed a style characterized by a sense of fantasy, humor, and a deceptive simplicity. Her work often balanced realism with abstraction, frequently employing a youthful, whimsical spirit that appeared childlike yet remained sophisticated in its composition and use of color. Her subject matter included genre paintings of circus people, characters from fairy tales, still lifes of flower arrangements, and portraits. In her later years, her portraits often took on a dark, almost monochrome quality, depicting figures within dreamlike, grey environments.

Technically, Cross was an adventurous experimentalist. She explored various surface textures, sometimes leaving parts of the canvas bare or building up layers of pigment with a brush and knife, occasionally adding mica or sand to her works. In one notable instance, she departed from traditional canvas or board to create a painting on velvet. Her ability to organize elements and utilize color contrasts allowed her to create an integrated whole, maintaining a recognizable signature throughout her evolving body of work.

Exhibitions and Instruction

Cross was an active participant in the Washington, D.C. art scene, exhibiting her work in numerous solo and group shows at venues such as the Phillips Gallery, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Whyte Gallery. Her work has been featured in collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Phillips Collection. Beyond her own practice, she was a dedicated art instructor. She taught at several institutions, including the Phillips Art School, the Washington Workshop Art Center, and the YMCA of Washington, D.C., and she also provided instruction at Hood College and American University.

Vprašanja in odgovori

Kje se je rodil/a Bernice Cross in v kateri državi?

Bernice Cross se je rodil/a v mestu Iowa City v državi United States.

Katere barve je Bernice Cross najpogosteje uporabljal/a?

Barvni profil del opusov umetnika Bernice Cross je prikazan na njegovi strani Genom palete.

Koliko umetnin umetnika Bernice Cross je na voljo za ogled?

Na strani Vsi umetniški slogi si lahko ogledate 21 umetnin del umetnika Bernice Cross.

Od kod prihaja Bernice Cross?

Bernice Cross se je rodil/a v državi United States.

Self-test

Pri vsakem vprašanju je na voljo le eden pravilen odgovor.

Vprašanje 1:
In which city was Bernice Cross born?
Vprašanje 2:
Which artist ran the Wilmington Academy where Cross enrolled in her late teens?
Vprašanje 3:
What material did Cross use to create her 1940 painting 'Little Dove's Stove' instead of canvas or board?
Vprašanje 4:
Which organization commissioned Cross to paint a mural in a children's hospital in Maryland?
Vprašanje 5:
Who was Bernice Cross's husband, who was also an artist?