Yosl Bergner was born in Vienna, Austria in 1920 and spent his childhood in Warsaw, Poland. He immigrated to Australia in 1937. He studied at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne. Since 1951 Bergner has lived in Israel.
Bergner's canvases draw their images from his childhood world, from Yiddish and from the Jewish culture of Poland. Although he did not personally experience the Holocaust, his works are overshadowed by the trauma of the Jewish refugee. Broken furniture and kitchen utensils, clowns, kings and angels, characters from Kafka's stories, children's toys, flowers and pioneers are only part of his wide range of themes.
Bergner participated in the Venice Biennial in 1956, 1958 and 1962, and at the Sao Paolo Biennial in 1957. In 1980, he was awarded the Israel Prize for Painting.