An influential social-realist artist, Bergner’s still life paintings of worn and discarded domestic objects are allegorical. Bergner belongs to a generation of Australian modernists that also includes Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd. Viennese-born Bergner was a contemporary of Boyd and Perceval and an active member of Melbourne's Contemporary Art Society together with his friends Noel Counihan and Vic O'Connor.
Read MoreBergner's paintings were among the first to address the specific plight of Indigenous Australians and his later work took inspiration from the works of German writer Franz Kafka. He moved to Israel permanently in 1948 and continued to take themes from Kafka’s novels and short stories.
His work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.