Bert Stern

Art Brokerage: Bert Stern American Artist: b. 1929-2013. Bertram Stern was born in Brooklyn, New York on 3 October 1929. From early age on he got into cartoons and advertisements. After first jobs as an office hand, et al. at the editorial office of the magazine Look', where Hershel Bramson encouraged his artistic ambitions, Stern began to work as an Art Director for the fashion magazine's Mayfair' in 1949. There he also began to work with photography. Stern was awarded the contract for an advertisement photo for Smirnoff Vodka by Bramson. Stern coped so well with this order that he was able to continue to work for Smirnoff and to get several other orders. His favourite dynamic triangle composition, which Stern will often use in the future was clearly visible in these early takings. Since 1962 Bert Stern also produced commercials for television. In June of the same year his best known pictures were taken: shortly before Marilyn Monroe's death, Stern received the permission to hold a three-day photo-shooting with the actress for Vogue'. The photos were successfully marketed world-wide as the last sitting' after the diva's death. In the 1980s he published again in Vogue'. Stern's aesthetic kept up with the time and guaranteed him orders during the 1990s.