New Walk Museum & Art Gallery
Miriam Beerman (b.1923, Rhode Island, USA) is an American painter and printmaker who has spent over 60 years producing works that respond to the brutality of our time. Beerman’s expressionist works communicate a range of often dark emotions, rooted in the tradition of abstract expressionism, probing her political and personal heritage.
Leicester Museums Service are delighted to receive the gift of twelve works on paper by Miriam Beerman, which are a wonderful complement to Leicester’s internationally important collection of early-twentieth-century German expressionist art, which includes works by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Alfred Kubin and George Grosz. Simon Lake, Curator of Fine Art at New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, comments how ‘Beerman’s vision possesses a quality equalling these artists, transforming the troubles and catastrophes of the external world into artworks of singular compassion and poignancy.’
The gifting of these works coincides with the release of a new film, Miriam Beerman, Expressing the Chaos, by award-winning film-maker Jonathan Gruber. The film tells the story of Miriam Beerman’s life and art and is a memorable profile of an artist who has elevated her empathy for the plight of the world’s cast offs into powerful portrayals of dignity.
Gifted by the artist through the Contemporary Art Society, 2014