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Join us Friday, 19 April at 1PM EST for a conversation about the work of the late Gunnar Norrman, Pucker Gallery artist. Joining us will be Brattleboro Museum Curator Emerita Mara Williams, Gallery Associate Dr. Carl Herbert, dear friend of the Gallery, Dr. Bernard Kreger, and Gallery Director Bernie Pucker. During the WebinART, works that illustrate Norrman's immense talent as he captures the unending poetry of nature will be discussed. The panel will also explore specific still life images that transform simple objects into soft, visual poems.
The exhibition Light Into Darkness is on view at Pucker Gallery through 5 May 2024.
Born in Scania, Sweden in 1912, Gunnar Norrman received a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany, Chemistry, and Genetics from the University of Lund in 1938. He had his first one-man exhibition of drawings in 1942 at the Malmö Museum of Art, despite having little formal training. In 1979, he was awarded the Prince Eugen Medal by the King of Sweden for the outstanding illustrations he executed for Naturen I Våra Hjärtan, an anthology of poems. Greatly respected in his native Sweden, Norrman’s works were featured in the 1997 exhibition titled Modern Scandinavian Prints at the British Museum, London. He has also exhibited in the United States, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, England, France, Japan, and Italy. His works are in the collections of the British Museum (London), the Nationalmuseum (Stockholm), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), and others. In 2003, a catalogue raisonné, Gunnar Norrman: The Complete Graphic Works, 1941- 2001, was published by the Fitch-Febvrel Gallery in New York. He has been represented by Pucker Gallery since 1986 and this is his 16th solo exhibition at the Gallery. Norrman died in 2005.
Dr. Bernie Kreger retired as Professor of Medicine at Boston University in 2020, where he practiced adult primary care at Boston Medical Center and did epidemiology research, mainly at the Framingham Heart Study, for half a century. He earned his A.B. in Engineering and Applied Physics and Master of Public Health from Harvard University. He earned his M.D. from Western Reserve University (now Case); and his post-doctoral residency and fellowship training were at Boston University Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Public Health Association. Born in Manhattan, he was reared in nearby Passaic, NJ, and attended public schools there. He began classical piano lessons locally at age 5 and then studied in Manhattan, including courses at Juilliard. As a high school senior, he won the NYTimes/WQXR "Musical Talent in Our Schools" auditions. In high school, he became a choral accompanist and continued for decades. Kreger was exposed to art early on by visiting museums with family in New York City and continued in the Boston area following an art history course as a college freshman - his only formal art "training". Extensive travel throughout the USA and abroad, including multiple visits to east Asia, mainly concert tours with choruses, have provided ample opportunity to see and acquire locally both two- and three-dimensional objects from all over the world, from antiques to contemporary works. He lives on 1.4 acres of suburban Boston, where he can play his Steinway grand at any hour and has plenty of room for gardening - his other life-long avocation.
Mara Williams assumed Emerita status in 2021, after curating exhibits at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center for thirty-three years. Her area of expertise is modern and contemporary art. Recent solo exhibitions include: Gathering Light: The Art of Stephen Hannock; Wolf Kahn—Landscape of Light; Secrets by Gloria Garfinkel; Andy Warhol—Selections from the Jon Gould Collection. Group shows have included the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Janet Fish, Mary Frank, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Maya Lin, James McGarrell, David Nash, Robert Rauschenberg, Ursula von Ridingsvard, Michael Singer, Tseng Kwong Chi, and Barbara Zucker, as well as a host of regional and emerging talent. As a partner in Arts Bridge LLC, Williams leads exhibition teams for institutions developing new large-scale museum projects. She led a team at Norwich University to conceive and build the inaugural exhibits and media productions at the Sullivan Museum & History Center; she was the exhibition developer and project manager for the Vermont Historical Society's interactive exhibit and film, Freedom & Unity: One Ideal, Many Stories; she developed Bravo! A Century of Theatre in Fairfield County; and a number of exhibits for the Vermont Folklife Center. She holds an A.B. in theatre from Boston College; an MFA in museology from Syracuse University and has completed doctoral course work and passed comprehensives in comparative arts at New York University. She is Chair of the Wolf Kahn Foundation. She has served as chair of the Vermont Arts Council and as a board member of the New England Museum Association, as well as three terms on the Senate Curatorial Advisory Committee for the U.S. Capitol.
Dr. Carl Herbert is a fourth-generation physician whose career has been devoted to helping infertility patients overcome a wide spectrum of obstacles to create their families. Early in his career he participated in the founding of one of the first eIVF centers in the United States. For more than forty years, Dr. Herbert has contributed to the growth and development of assisted reproductive technologies, continually implementing the evolving techniques and optimizing their clinical applications for care. The ambiguity of a socially awkward accolade, “You got me pregnant!”, has become a recurrent reward, both humorous and joyful. By serendipity, Dr. Herbert walked into Pucker Gallery for the first time in 1985 when visiting Boston for a medical conference. From this point on, his nascent interest in art grew under the generous tutelage and encouragement of Mr. Pucker. A close personal friendship evolved as they visited artists and exhibitions around the world; exchanged thoughts on the experience and intrinsic value that art, in all its many forms, can provide individuals and society; and shared writings which illuminated these principles.
Bernie Pucker is the director of Pucker Gallery, which he founded with his wife, Sue, on Boston's historic Newbury Street in 1967. Pucker Gallery represents over fifty artists from around the world, presenting approximately ten exhibitions annually, often paired with artist talks, virtual “WebinArts,” and Gallery receptions. Bernie is currently a Board Member at the Japan Society, Boston, and the Jewish Publication Society. He also serves on the Leadership Council for Facing History and Ourselves as well as the Artistic Advisory Board for the Terezin Music Foundation. Previously, he has served as President of Solomon Schechter Day School, President of the Newbury Street League, and Board Member for the Friends of Copley Square and The Unity Project, among others. Bernie received his MA in Modern Jewish History from Brandeis University and his BA in History and English Literature from Columbia College.