N°11-1968 Grand rond

Actor portraying Anne-Eva Bergman: 

"I paint my perception of the world" 

Narrator: 

The moon is a recurring motif in Bergman's artistry. Towards the end of the 1960s, she painted a number of artworks where the moon has the central role. 

We find many representations of the moon, and moonlight, in the history of art; such as the German artist Caspar David Friedrich, and Norwegian artists J.C. Dahl and Edvard Munch, who created his own characteristic moon beam. 

Bergman was familiar with, and orientated on, the history of art. The concentration on the moon motif in her artwork is also easy to see in the context of Apollo's moon landing in 1969 and the entire 1960s race for the moon. Everyone followed along, including Bergman, and the fascination found its way into art. In the painting N°11-1968 Grand rond she portrays the moon on a large scale. 

The picture was painted the year before the moon landing, as an anticipation or a dream of what was to happen. With the moon landing, a new limit for what humans could achieve was crossed. Space had been conquered, and Armstrong had left the first footprint on the moon… 

The moon has always fascinated artists, writers, scientists, and philosophers. Seen from Earth, the white sphere in the sky and the cyclical changes have contributed to various speculations, dreams, and scientific representations. Like the horizon motif, the moon depictions are about what is infinitely far away, beyond or at the limit of what we can grasp. In N°11-1968 Grand rond we see the silver moon against a pale blue background. The moon seems to explode out of the frame. Crackled lines and traces in the metal foil, can resemble the surface of the moon as seen from Earth or from photographs. 

The photographs from the moon provided knowledge, but also ignited the imagination.  

Bergman's Moon was shown at the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1969, the same year as the moon landing.