Atención Art Talks: A Conversation With Marvin Berk

By Pascual Hijuelos

Graphic design is probably one of the most grueling and competitive career fields an artist can pursue. Essentially you are expected to generate a profitable income for your client through your art work. There is little time for good will and humanitarian pursuits. Marvin Berk is  an artist who was able to achieve  commercial success and support humanitarian causes throughout his artistic career.

For over forty years Marvin worked as a graphic designer—beginning in the bullpen and later as the art director of his own graphic design studio. Having achieved a certain level of success within the graphic design community Marvin was able to redirect his skills toward causes that held deep personal meanings for him. During his career he received over 50 professional art and humanitarian awards and was a member of the Art Directors Club of NY. However his proudest achievement was his affiliation as an artist with UNICEF and other organizations like the Epilepsy Foundation. Organizations that championed child and family welfare. Today Marvin continue his creative journey as a photomontage artist in San Miguel de Allende. At lunch recently we talked.

Marvin, How did it start? My early fascination with art began at the age of four, nurtured by afternoons with my loving beatnik Aunt Ethel at the New York  Botanical Gardens. There, we observed landscapes and greenhouse specimens, committing intricate details to memory. Later at home, we would sketch the day’s discoveries from recall — a formative exercise that I practice to this day. Years after, I studied at The Art Students League, earned my BFA in Fine Arts from SUNY New Paltz, and then completed a Graduate Design Program at Pratt.

You were a Fine Arts sculptor and painter what made you go into the commercial art world?

I had to earn a living. Early on, it was my personal art that helped me to land my first job in one of New York’s premier corporate design companies. My visual flare, sense of color and form allowed me to enter the arts and luxury markets. If it weren't for my artwork, I would never have had such achievements.

Tell us a little about your career

Basically I create and developed visual campaigns that involved the development of visual marketing concepts and strategies, as well as the supporting graphics for institutions like ABT and others. I was able to collaborate with leading innovators in the fields of music, dance, and theater. I feel that the appeal in my work resulted from my collaboration with innovators in performing arts, being the likes of Paul Taylor, Lincoln Center,The Grammys, Tracy Stern, Jan De Gaetani  & Risa Stevens and numerous other performers. What an exhilarating honor it was to create visual works alongside Lotte Lenya, contemporary musicians and composers, as well as visionary designer Oscar de la Renta, chocolatier Michele Gerrard, and many others. The energy I received from them made me want to create.

As an artist how do you classify yourself and why? I don’t see myself as either an abstractionist or a realist. After years of creating with printed images and the computer, I would say I am a digital artist,  My photomontage art is driven by a propensity for  excellence and a concern for the human conditions. Those two drives are not always a blessing, yet they navigate who I am and what I create.

How do you see the art world today and how do you see your world of art today? Humm. Interesting question. Art today can be very exciting. Lots of folks produce lovely decorative art that enhances one’s home or office. There are experiential artists who create environments meant to stimulate one’s senses and broaden a multitude of comfortable and alarming situations. And, there are artists working to challenge concepts: personal, political and societal, etc.

Some of my art can be very appealing, it has a richness and allure  thanks to my selections of color, form and movement. Each piece I create is designed to  stimulate our inner selves when visualizing. Then there are my more literal artworks, which can be challenging. I like  juxtaposing themes; art and warfare, religion and the arts, cultural differences, etc. I feel that in many ways my works are  narratives. Works that I will continue to produce.  Stories of the heart and soul.

For more information on Marvin’swork and future shows you can contact through his webpage: www.MarvinBerk.com

Cuban-American Pascual Hijuelos divides his time between San Miguel de Allende  and New York City. pascualhijuelos.art