Helen is a painter creating work with great charm and a distinctive sensibility. Her paintings reveal a love of color and the joy she finds in the world around. The images are realistic – landscapes, interiors, still lives – but rendered with flattened perspective and a wealth of detail. Helen’s paintings may strike a first-time viewer as having a “naïve” quality, but on close inspection they reveal the trained eye and hand of a mature artist.
Helen Berggruen was born in San Francisco in 1945. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 1967 from Sarah Lawrence College, where a good friend was novelist Alice Walker (class of ‘65). Berggruen is quoted in the biography Alice Walker: A Life by Evelyn C. White (2004), discussing a summer when she and Walker worked with the rural poor in Alabama. Berggruen credits their friendship with developing her strong social consciousness.
The artist’s original passion was the theater. From 1971 to 1974, she studied with director Robert Wilson’s “Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds,” an experimental performance group in New York.
Helen also painted. Her talents led many – including her father, Heinz, the renowned art dealer and collector – to encourage her to pursue art seriously. Helen followed this advice and shifted her direction. By the late 1970s, she was a fully committed visual artist. Through the ensuing decades, Helen has been painting and exhibiting in the United States and Europe. She currently lives in the Napa Valley, and also spends part of each year in Iowa, with both regions providing inspiration.
BORN
1945 San Francisco, California
EDUCATION
1963-7 Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York, BA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Between Two Worlds, The Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA
2020 Coming Home by Helen Berggruen, Markham Winery, St. Helena, CA
2018 Interiors.Exteriors, Villa Francke, Potsdam, Germany
2017 Interiors/Exteriors Galerie de l’Arcade, St. Clar, France
2016 Time & Tempo, Marsac, (Tarn et Garonne), France
2015 Christie’s South Kensington, London, UK
2014 Dialogues, Galerie Deschler, Berlin, Germany
2013 A Restless Harmony, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, California
2013 The Open Window: Objects, Rooms & Landscapes, Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
2010 Helen Berggruen: Itinerant Regionalist, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 House and Home, Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
Haus und Landschaft (“House and landscape”), Galerie Mutter Fourage, Berlin
2007 I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
2006 Elkader Art Center, Elkader, Iowa
2004 I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
2003 Galerie Mutter Fourage, Berlin, Germany
2002 Le Monde de l’Intérieur, Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Paintings From France and England, I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
1999 Recent Paintings, Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Berggruen & Zevi Ltd., London, England
1996 Recent Paintings, I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
Vehicules a Paris, Alliance Française, San Francisco, CA
Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
1993 Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
Recent Paintings, I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
1987 Watercolor + Printed + K488 + 108 Squares, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1985 The Diner, Yountville, CA
1984 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1983 The Diner, Yountville, CA
1981 The Diner, Yountville, CA
1975 Napa Valley Theater, Yountville, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Wonderwomen, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2018 Project Peace, Galerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
2017 History Becomes Art, St. Helena Historical Society, St. Helena, CA
18 Fischbach Gallery
2016 Think Big, Fischbach Gallery
The Endless Summer, Fischbach Gallery
In Plain Sight/Hindsight, Fischbach Gallery
2015 The Flower Show, Fischbach Gallery
2012 Artistic Visions of the Golden Gate Bridge, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010 Summer Reading, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Everyone Loves Good News, Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Midwestern Visions, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA
2005 Legion Arts, Cedar Rapids, IA
2003 Color Form & Figure, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2002 Season Ticket, Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
2001 Contemporary American Realism III, M.A. Doran Gallery, Tulsa, OK
1997 Ornament & Landscape, Apex Art, New York, NY
1996 Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID
1995 Summer, Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
Twenty-five Years, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1994 Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
Images Gallery, Toledo, OH
1994 I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1993 Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
Steven Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Self Portraits, Edith Caldwell Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1992 Works on Loan from the John Berggruen Gallery, I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
1991 Napa Valley Museum, Yountville, CA
Steven Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Louis Stern Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Oberon Gallery, Napa, CA
1990 J. Noblett Gallery, Boyes Hot Springs, CA
1988 Works on Paper, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1984 Gallery Madison 90, New York, NY
COMMISSIONS
1998 Bridges of Napa Valley, Napa Valley Heritage Fund, CA
1996 Tomatina, triptych for Real Restaurants, St. Helena, CA
1988 Tra Vigne Banquet Room Series, St. Helena, CA
COLLABORATION
1997 A Passing Reference, watercolor, engraving, and type, with writer and printer, Emily McVarish, London
1990 108 Squares with letterpress printer, Emily McVarish, Yountville, CA
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Ms. Toni Atkinson, Colorado
Ms. Nancy Baker, New York, NY
Mr. Richard Barr, New York, NY
Mr. & Mrs. John Berggruen, California
Beringer Vineyards, St. Helena, CA
Mr. and Mrs. John Bryan, California
Mrs. and Mrs. Klaus and Ulla Bölling, Berlin, Germany
Dr. and Mrs. Robert E. Carroll, New York
Cedar Rapids Art Museum, Iowa
Chemical Bank of New York
Commerce Bancshares, Missouri
Mr. and Mrs. Francis Ford Coppola, California
General Electric Company, Connecticut
Ms. Maggy Geiger, New York
Mr. Chan Gordon, North Carolina
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Grace, St. Helena, CA
Ms. Victoria Hochberg, Los Angeles, California
Kaplan McLaughin Diaz Architects, San Francisco, CA
Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Lorch, Pennsylvania
Mustards Grill, Yountville, CA
Ms. Elizabeth Owens, California
Mr. Paul & The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Washington, D.C.
Mr. Edward E. Robbins, Florida
Mr. F. Dan Scrimger, Toronto
Mr. and Mrs. Howard Shapiro, Vermont
Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri
Mr. and Mrs. Whitney Smith, Texas
Mr. Peter Vermilye, Massachusetts
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Wilson, California
Tra Vigne, St. Helena, CA