(Wuppertal-Elberfeld 1904–1981 Sankt Veit im Jauntal, Carinthia)
On the way to their Sunday visit, around 1970, monogrammed W. B., oil on canvas, 35 x 55.5 cm, framed, (K)

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Dr Harald Scheicher, author of the catalogue raisonné, Werner Berg Archive.

Provenance:
Family Ownership, Vienna

…if I still want to get round to doing the only thing I am obliged to do: work. I am not underestimating the exceptional nature of the opinion and attitude which you use to admonish me, reminding me of the task of, and my debt to, the small circle of which I am, and remain, a member. “Sociability”, a category which lies outside the artistic sphere, is something I have been practising all my life, more so than almost anyone else in a similar situation. But, as an exception, and although I am in no way fully committed to this point of view, allow me also to quote from Minima Moralia: “For intellectuals, the only way to secure some measure of solidarity is through continual solitude.” In addition to all the considerations and objections that surround this issue, which are certainly not invalid, there is something which can hardly be expressed in words: the existence of a permanent exhibition in addition to the necessary remoteness of the Rutarhof would, over time, come to represent an internal intrusion that would not only be disruptive, but also destructive. “I am at the beginning, where I have always been.”
Excerpt from a letter from Werner Berg to Erich Kuby, 1969