signed lithography 
 
 
Yosl Bergner (1920 - 2017) is considered one of the most important painters in the history of Israeli art. Bergner was born in Vienna in 1920, grew up in Poland, and went to study art in Australia. He fought in the Australian Army during World War II and in 1951 immigrated to Israel with his wife, painter Audrey Bergner. Over the years he has won numerous prizes, including the Israel Prize for Art in 1980, exhibited in many exhibitions in Israel and abroad and has represented Israel several times at the Venice Biennale, and has illustrated many books, among others, SY Agnon's books (Mainly for the plays of Nissim Aloni, who was a close friend of his).
Bergner designed scenery and costumes for the Yiddish and Hebrew theatres, particularly for the plays of Nisim Aloni, and has illustrated many books. The acme of Bergner's paintings is his allegorical works; he uses kitchen tools such as squashed pots, oil lamps, wrecks, and cracked jugs and he anthropomorphizes them. These old instruments symbolize a distorted and poor world of wars, secrets, and darkness.