Berserik was born in The Hague. He studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague from 1939 to 1944, where he studied with among others William Schrofer, Willem Rozendaal, Paul Citroen and Rein Draijer. He graduated in 1944, and became a member of The Hague Art Circle in 1946. In 1948 he became a teacher at the Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague. He was a member of the group Verve. From 1958 to 1978 Berserik was a teacher printing and illustration techniques at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in 1963 and active member of the Hague art club "Pulchri Studio". He was also a member of the Federation of Professional Visual Artists in Amsterdam. He lived from 1952 until his death in the former gardeners home of the country estate "De Voorde" in Rijswijk.
Work and style
Berserik initially did a lot of commissioned work: posters, small prints and illustrations. He signed commercials for Philips, the PTT and KLM. So he made more than 300 covers and illustrations for books for publishers including Voorhoeve, Bert Bakker/Daamen and Querido. These were books by famous authors such as Louis Paul Boon, Willem Elsschot, Nescio and Paul van Ostaijen. In 1959 he made cartoon film about the construction of the Delta Works in the southwest of the Netherlands in commission of the public relation department of the water management authorities. Between 1953 and 1976 he designed costumes and stages for eight different theater productions. Berserik made over 1500 paintings, portraits, still lives, city and seascapes and landscapes. He also made architectural commissions, laying mosaics, reliefs and murals in the district of The Hague where he spent his youth. Most of them are now destroyed because the buildings they were part of were pulled down.
Awards
Berserik received numerous awards, including "Koninklijke Subsidie voor de Schilderkunst" in 1948 en 1949, de "Jacob Marisprijs" in 1950, de "David Roëllprijs" in 1951, de "Jacob Marisprijs voor grafiek" in 1952 en 1960, de "Jacob Hartogprijs" in 1963 en "Jacob Hartog oeuvreprijs" in 2000.
The work of Berserik has appeared in several Dutch museum collections, including the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, "Museum voor Communicatie" in The Hague and the "Instituut Collectie Nederland". However, the majority of his paintings, drawings, etchings and lithographs is privately owned.
Exhibitions (selection)
Between 1947 and 2001 there were 38 one-person exhibitions including:
1965 Art Gallery M.L. de Boer in Amsterdam
1967 First Retrospective exhibition in former Gemeentemuseum in Arnhem
