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New York, NY – It was announced by Kerrie Buitrago, Chief Operating Officer of The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, that Ronald D. Spencer, attorney at the law firm of Carter, Ledyard and Milburn will succeed Charles C. Bergman as Chairman and CEO of the Foundation. “Mr. Spencer is a distinguished lawyer whose career demonstrates a comprehensive knowledge and experience in advising artist and collector established foundations, “ said Ms. Buitrago. “We have worked with Mr. Spencer over many years and are delighted to welcome him as our Chairman and CEO. I know first-hand how much the Foundation will benefit under his stewardship.” Samuel Sachs II, Board President noted “Long associated with both his predecessor and this foundation, Mr. Spencer brings a wealth of knowledge which will greatly enhance our future.”

Mr. Spencer is Chairman of the Art Law Group at the law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn in New York City and as author of The Expert Versus The Object: Judging Fakes and False Attributions in the Visual Arts has demonstrated expertise in the legal aspects of art authentication issues. He is the Editor of Spencer’s Art Law Journal, published on Artnet and The Art Newspaper, dealing with legal issues of practical significance for collectors, dealers, scholars and the art-minded public.

Mr. Spencer is a Trustee of the Lachaise Foundation. He is founder and Chairman of the Fund for Park Avenue which landscapes the Park Avenue Malls from 53rd Street to 86th Street in Manhattan. He is also a member of the Sculpture committee of the Fund which selects contemporary sculpture for exhibition on Park Avenue. Mr. Spencer is legal counsel to numerous artist and collector-established foundations.

“It has been a great privilege to serve as legal counsel to The Pollock-Krasner Foundation since its establishment.  Now, under my leadership, I look forward to continuing the tradition established by my friend and predecessor, Charles C. Bergman. Lee Krasner’s will states that the mandate of the Foundation is to aid ‘worthy and needy’ visual artists, and I will do my utmost to carry out her wishes,” stated Mr. Spencer.

ABOUT THE POLLOCK-KRASNER FOUNDATION

The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. was established in 1985 for the sole purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability through the generosity of the late Lee Krasner, one of the leading abstract painters and the widow of Jackson Pollock. To date, the Foundation has given 4,414 grants totaling over $71 million to artists in 77 countries.

Charles C. Bergman (1933-2018)

photo courtesy of Joe Fornabaio

NEW YORK, NY, February 27, 2018- The Pollock-Krasner Foundation mourns the loss of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Charles C. Bergman, who organized the Foundation at its inception and guided it for more than three decades with great wisdom and generosity.

Born in 1933 and raised in Boston, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, Mr. Bergman graduated from Harvard in 1954 and dedicated the early part of his career to the field of mental health. After serving as a Vice President of the People to People Health Foundation (Project HOPE), he became a special advisor in mental health under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter. Beginning in the early 1970s he was the head of the largest psychotherapy training program in the United States, the Institutes of Religion and Health, which he formed by merging the Academy of Religion and Mental Health with the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry.

In 1984, at the request of Lee Krasner’s attorney, Gerald Dickler, Mr. Bergman agreed to serve as a consultant on forming a charitable foundation, to be established with the assets of the estates of Ms. Krasner and her husband Jackson Pollock. When the foundation was granted legal approval in April 1985, he became Executive Vice President of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, serving at first with President Eugene V. Thaw (co-trustee of Lee Krasner’s estate). He soon assumed the role of Chairman and CEO and was joined by Kerrie Buitrago as Executive Vice President, and upon Mr. Thaw’s retirement as President worked closely with his successor, Samuel Sachs II.

It was largely because of Mr. Bergman’s insight that the Pollock-Krasner Foundation defined its mission as providing cash grants to worthy individual artists in need, in the United States and around the world. Under Mr. Bergman’s leadership, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation awarded more than 4,400 grants totaling more than $71 million to artists in 77 countries. Mr. Bergman took special pleasure in personally informing each grantee of his or her award.

In addition to his many years of service at the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Mr. Bergman served on the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission of New York City, the Overseers’ Committee of the Harvard University Art Museums and the New York State Council on the Arts and was Vice President of the Inter-American Foundation for the Arts. He served on the boards of the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, the National Young Arts Foundation, the Children’s Radio Foundation, the sculpture committee of the Fund for Park Avenue, the New York Foundation for the Arts Leadership Council, and the philanthropy committee of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, among many others.

Mr. Bergman is survived by his spouse Stuart Levy, whom he married in 2015.