Until recently, the American artist Margot Bergman (*1934, Chicago) has had little recognition on this side of the Atlantic. Now, the Swiss Museum Langmatt, in collaboration with the Folkwang Museum in Essen and Urbane Künste Ruhr, is producing her first solo show in Europe. Her mostly small portraits fluctuate between surreal metamorphoses and Outsider Art. Bergman takes paintings—mainly landscapes—she has found at flea markets and paints over them to reveal faces in them. The interplay of layers, which recalls sampling, creates cryptic portraits that sometimes evoke uncanny, melancholy, or even humorous impressions. The accompanying catalog is the first publication in a long while about this astonishing artist; it presents her work and poses fundamental questions about contemporary portrait painting.Exhibition:March 3 – April 28, 2019, Museum Langmatt, Baden