The Hill Art Foundation is pleased to announce The Lost Beauty of Humankind: Robert Bergman’s Portraits in the Hill Collection, a landmark exhibition that places the portraits of American photographer Robert Bergman in conversation with select Old Master paintings from the Hill Collection, curated by David Levi Strauss. This exhibition marks the first major presentation of Bergman’s work since his celebrated solo exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art and MoMA PS1 in 2009.

The exhibition features large-scale portraits of ordinary people whom Bergman encountered on American streets between 1985 and 1993. The works evoke the painterly richness of Old Master portraiture through their saturated colors, intimate framing, and nuanced attention to each individual’s features. Yet beyond these formal qualities, each subject is portrayed with a resonant, spiritual presence, unbound by notions of time or place. By juxtaposing Bergman’s photographs with works by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and Jacopo Bassano, and more contemporary artists like Frank Auerbach and Andy Warhol, The Lost Beauty of Humankind emphasizes a shared dignity and humanity through the act of looking.