Merrill C. Berman, Leading Art Collector
Liubov Popova (Constructivist)
Prozodezhda aktera No. 7 (Production Clothing for Actor No. 7), 1922, dated 1921
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Merrill C. Berman Collection
Classmate Merrill C. Berman is among the premier art collectors of our time. His deep, extensive collection, acquired over more than fifty years, reflects the history of the twentieth century with an emphasis on avant-garde art and its relationship to social justice. Merrill has long supported scholarly inquiry and the realization of exhibitions and publications in the United States and abroad. His website, www.mcbcollection.com, provides an overview of the collection and its long-standing role as a resource.
Jennifer Aubin, Public Relations Manager of the Harvard Art Museums recently expressed appreciation of his generosity: “Merrill’s gifts of paintings and drawings by Carl Grossberg, as well as incredible loans of many, many other works over the years have absolutely resonated in our galleries, time and time again!” When you visit the Harvard Art Museums, especially the Busch Reisinger portion, be sure to ask to see any displayed items contributed by Merrill C. Berman. (Note: the Harvard Art Museums have also recently been the beneficiary of a transformative gift of twenty-one works of eighteenth century American silver from the collection of our late classmate Daniel A. Pollack and, his wife Susan F. Pollack. See the separate entry on our website.)
Merrill began, as a collector, with political Americana. His Political Americana collection has been considered to be the leading private collection of campaign memorabilia in the country. Packaging Presidents: Memorabilia from Campaigns Past, with essays by Frederick Voss, Rick Beard and Michael Cheney, is the catalogue of a 1984 exhibition at The Hudson River Museum (Yonkers, New York); and Packaging Presidents: 200 Years of Campaigns & Candidates is the catalogue of an exhibition of objects, predominantly from the collection of Merrill C. Berman, at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, Springfield, Illinois from February 5 to November 30, 2008. Merrill formed and (in the 1970s) sold a collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and modern paintings, and then moved into modern art and graphic design, including drawing, collage, photomontage, and printed matter. He took a long chronological view, from the late nineteenth century through to the graphic output of the Black Panther Party. The Merrill C. Berman Collection represents a complex history of modernism in which avant-garde artists actively produced both fine and applied art – commercial and political – often in communication with each other.
Hannah Höch, Untitled (Dada), c. 1922
The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Merrill C. Berman Collection The Collection is strong in twentieth century European art of the interwar period (1918–1939) – Dada, Bauhaus, Futurism, Neue Sachlichkeit, and Russian Constructivism – but it also includes work of adjacent periods and geographical regions as they relate to key collecting interests. Well-known artists represented include John Heartfield, Gustav Klutsis, Valentina Kulagina, El Lissitzky, E. McKnight Kauffer, Aleksandr Rodchenko, and Jan Tschichold, but also those who may be less familiar such as Carl Grossberg, Lou Loeber, Josef Peeters, Nikolai Sedel’nikov, and Elena Semenova.
In 2018, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) acquired a significant portion (324 works) of the Berman Collection, which served as the basis for an extraordinary display at MoMA, with a striking accompanying catalogue. Engineer Agitator Constructor: The Artist Reinvented, 1918-1939 is a marvelous, printed representation of the MoMA acquisition and exhibition (on view from December 13, 2020 to April 10, 2021). This book, edited and with introductory material by Jodi Hauptman and Adrian Sudhalter … and with excellent descriptive and analytical essays by leading scholars (including Harvard professors Benjamin H. D. Buchloh and Maria Gough) pertaining to each of the represented artists, was published by MoMA during the pandemic, in mid-2020. 
Heinz Loew, Ausstellungsstand mit zwangsläufiger Gehrichtung (Exhibition Stand with Mandatory Viewing Route), 1929
The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Merrill C. Berman Collection
Writing in Engineer Agitator Constructor, the revered contemporary artist William Kentridge sees the works included as examples of an East European and Russian trend that he describes as “art leaving the canvas and oil paint and finding form as banners, fabrics, plates and utensils, painted trucks and trains, kiosks, huge sculptures, industrial concerts.” These artists were responding to the turbulent times of the early twentieth century – a period of momentous events -- World War I, the Russian Revolution, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the rise of fascism … and more. Glenn D. Lowry, MoMA’s David Rockefeller Director, opines: The Berman’s Collection “highlights the role of artists as citizens, media workers, advertisers and activists revealing links between fine art and graphic design and shedding light on collective activities and then-new channels for the circulation of ideas” (the social media spiritualists of their period?). For example, artist John Heartfield, born in Germany as Helmut Herzfeld, with his 1928 The Hand Has Five Fingers poster advocating for the German Communist Party, is known as a pioneer in the political weaponizing – or engineering – of photomontage within print culture.
John Heartfield (Helmut Herzfeld), 5 Finger hat die Hand (The Hand Has Five Fingers; with 5 you seize [or spit upon] the enemy). Poster for the German Communist Party, the fifth party on the nationwide electoral list for the Reichstag vote on May 20, 1928, 1928 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Merrill C. Berman Collection. The good news is that Merrill C. Berman is still actively acquiring and has plenty more art in his collection to show. Designer and author Steven Heller, who, according to Observer critic David D’Arcy, sat on the MoMA committee that recommended the Berman acquisition, notes “It’s not that he sold his entire collection; he’s a faucet that just doesn’t stop dripping.” 
John Heartfield (Helmut Herzfeld), 5 Finger hat die Hand (The Hand Has Five Fingers; with 5 you seize [or spit upon] the enemy). Poster for the German Communist Party, the fifth party on the nationwide electoral list for the Reichstag vote on May 20, 1928, 1928
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Merrill C. Berman Collection.
The good news is that Merrill C. Berman is still actively acquiring and has plenty more art in his collection to show. Designer and author Steven Heller, who, according to Observer critic David D’Arcy, sat on the MoMA committee that recommended the Berman acquisition, notes “It’s not that he sold his entire collection; he’s a faucet that just doesn’t stop dripping.”
Marianne Brandt, Sports—Sport (Les sports—Le sport), c. 1927
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Merrill C. Berman Collection