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Artist in oil and mixed media, and businessman, born in Brussels, Belgium, his mother English, his father a wealthy Polish-Jewish bullion dealer who hit hard times, persuading Bernard to avoid poverty by cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit. Over the years, Stern turned a penny from such activities as painting buckles and brooches, decorating lampshades, portering in Covent Garden vegetable market, drawing for the Daily Herald while serving in the wartime ambulance service, as a property dealer and the manufacturer of Rotaflex lamps. He was involved in Concord Lighting International, which by the early 1960s operated in 50 countries, although Stern always insisted that “Painting is my profession, lighting is just my hobby.” Walls, especially those of New York, and the graffiti they bear, were Stern’s special subject.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)


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