On the one hand, there is a strong classical element, which may at times remind one, not so much of Renaissance paintings and frescos, as of the Ancient Roman paintings to be seen in Pompeii. On the other hand, there are influences that seem to come from the artists of the turn of the century Vienna Secession – specifically from the work of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. It is worth remembering that the culture of the Balkans, of the Bosnia-Herzegovina of today, retains impulses that originated, not in any part of Italy, but in Vienna.

The eclecticism of Tarik Berber’s work is personal, yet is at the same time symbolic of much that is happening in the visual culture of today. This culture has access to an increasingly wide range of references. Images from every region of the world and from old epochs, from Palaeolithic times to our own, are readily available to young artists, and indeed to all the rest of us provided we have access to a computer. Historical hierarchies are vanishing – art from every epoch is immediately ours if we wish it to be so. Geographical boundaries are also tending to dissolve.

 The result has been the gradual emergence of a new generation of artists, less interested in avant-garde identity, and much more interested in locating the true creative self. Tarik Berber is one of those artists.

Edward Lucie-Smith