DAVID
BIERK
SANCTUARY
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This
is to let you know that the next exhibition at Nancy Hoffman Gallery will
be paintings by David Bierk, opening on March 22nd and continuing through
April 23rd. The exhibition entitled "Sanctuary" is the first of
four posthumous exhibitions of the artist's work to be held at this gallery.
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David Bierk,
Landscape in Steel, Dawn Sky & Tree, 1993,
oil on board, steel, 34.5 x 38.5 inches framed
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David
Bierk died in August 2002 at the age of 58 after fighting a valiant battle
with cancer. Most of the paintings in this exhibition, spanning the last
decade, have never been seen before. All works will be available for viewing
by March 15, 2003. |
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David Bierk,
Eulogy (BALANCE), to El Labrador, 1996,
oil on photograph on board, steel, 21.5 x 36.5 inches framed
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Each
of the four exhibitions is named with a word the artist used in his paintings;
this show is entitled "Sanctuary," the second "Memory,"
the third "History," and the fourth "Life." "Sanctuary"
includes the full vocabulary of this artist of singular impassioned vision:
landscape, still life, history paintings (the title the artist used for
his diptychs). |
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David Bierk,
A Eulogy to Life, to Manet & Gauguin, 1992-1994,
oil on photograph on board, oil on canvas, steel, 40.5 x 58 inches framed
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Long
before the word "appropriation" arose as a term in contemporary
art, David Bierk began a lifelong homage to the masters and a deep exploration
of the history of art. As early as graduate school for a thesis project,
he used the background of the "Mona Lisa" in his self-portrait.
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David Bierk, A Eulogy, to Gauguin & Earth, 1992,
oil on canvas, gold frame, steel, 19.5 x 29.5 inches framed
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The
artist's love of history and his enthusiasm to re-present the masters in
a new context was a constant and consistent motif throughout his oeuvre.
Bierk's still life paintings are after some of the artist's favorite masters:
Fantin laTour, Manet, the Dutch masters. |
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David Bierk,
A Eulogy to Earth, November Dawn, 1997,
oil on canvas, 54.5 x 93.5 inches framed
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In
each case, Bierk alters the image, changes its scale, magnifies the proportions
and paints with the gusto and passion that were his signature. Many of the
still life works are surrounded by steel, an industrial material. |
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David Bierk,
A Eulogy to Life, Hudson Pond, 2001-2002,
oil on canvas, 41.5 x 49 inches framed
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Bierk
intentionally set up a tension between the softness of oil and the hardness
of steel, between the painting as a valued object, and steel, a construction
material, of no inherent value. It was the dialogue of these divergent chords
the artist addressed conceptually in his still life paintings. |
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David Bierk,
Requiem for a Planet, Yellow Sky & Pond, 2001,
oil on found steel panel, 40.5 x 52.5 inches framed
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Bierk's
landscapes honor the Hudson River painters; creators of idealized landscapes.
His landscapes are, for the most part, invented, beginning as abstract symphonies
of many layers of paint, building toward voluptuous surfaces of crusty oil,
sometimes on concrete, at other times on steel or canvas. |
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David Bierk,
End of Day, Locked in Migration, 2001,
oil on canvas, steel, 47.5 x 43.5 inches framed
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A
few of the landscapes pay tribute to the grandeur of Bierstadt in choice
of location and image. Of primary import in the landscapes is the glowing
sky; a fiery golden aura connects one Bierk landscape to another. Meandering
rivers or ponds amdist clusters of trees are Bierk's vision in landscape.
Among the most passionate landscapes are three of Bierk's final works on
concrete, each with a word in gold floating in the foreground: MEMORY, LIFE,
FAITH. |
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David Bierk,
Still Life with Steel, to van Aelst, 1999,
oil on plaster on board, steel 52.5 x 40.5 inches framed
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While
most of Bierk's history paintings will be on view in his third show, a few
are included in this exhibition, some juxtaposing a landscape with a still
life after a master, Matisse, van der Ast, Manet. Others juxtapose two master
images in different scale, and finally in a Eulogy To Gauguin and Earth,
Bierk paints a detail of a Gauguin woman and partners her with a brute plate
of steel through which he drills screws, an impenetrable mirror to the beauty
accompanying it on the right. |
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David Bierk,
A Eulogy to Life, Selected Histories, to van der Ast, 2001,
oil on plaster, plywood & concrete, oil on ink-jet photograph on canvas,
44.5 x 72 inches framed
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Creating
two sides of equal intensity clearly shows the artist's post modern attitude
and invites the viewer into a dialogue. Of his juxtapositions, the artist
said: "I arrange and re-arrange these elements to create a series of
visual and intellectual collisions, bringing into relief the complex interchanges
and precarious co-existence of their parts." |
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David Bierk,
Requiem for a Planet, Landscape with Steel, End of Day, 2001,
oil on plaster on board, steel, 49 x 40.5 inches framed
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David
Bierk's paintings after the masters are done in the spirit of praise, celebration
and homage to the act of painting. The artist said of these diptychs; "my
quest to resolve the polarities of past and present, of life and death,
of preservation and destruction, delivers a series of images and ideas that
converge and resist, that vacillate between the reciprocal and the parasitic,
that speak to my personal and universal concerns, to explore the boundaries
and relationships between art, culture and humanity." |
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David Bierk,
Flowers in Steel, Locked in Migration, to Fantin-Latour,, 2002,
oil on board, steel, 49.75 x 47.5 inches framed
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David
Bierk was born in Appleton, Minnesota in 1944. He received both a B.A. and
an M.A. from Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. He also attended
California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland. |
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David Bierk,
A Eulogy, to Vermeer & Earth, 1996-1998,
oil on photograph, oil on canvas, 24.5 x 35.5 inches
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David Bierk,
Still Life in Steel, Locked in Migration, to van Aelst, 2000,
oil on canvas, steel, 47x 42.5 inches framed
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David Bierk,
Stone Landscape, to Earth (FAITH), 2001-2002,
oil on concrete, 28.5 x 28.5 inches framed
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David Bierk,
Stone Landscape, to Earth (LIFE), 2001-2002,
oil on concrete, 28.5 x 31 inches framed
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David Bierk,
Stone Landscape, to Earth (MEMORY), 2001-2002,
oil on concrete, 29.5 x 35.5 inches framed
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David
Bierk's work has been widely shown throughout the United States and Canada
at public institutions including The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art,
Ridgefield, Connecticut; Binghamton University Art Museum, Binghamton, New
York; Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa; Dayton Art Institute,
Ohio; Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Indiana; Flint Institute of
the Arts, Michigan; Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida,
Gainesville; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Katonah
Museum of Art, Katonah, New York; Las Vegas Art Museum, Nevada; London Regional
Art and Historical Museum, London, Ontario; University of Massachusetts,
Amherst; Memorial Art Museum, Rochester, New York; MoMA extension at Pfizer,
New York, New York; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama; New York Academy
of Sciences, New York, New York; Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia,
as well as many corporate and private venues. |
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David Bierk,
A Eulogy to Art & Life (SANCTUARY), to the Master of Hartford, 2001,
oil on canvas, 22.5 x 46.5 inches framed
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The work of
David Bierk is included in many public collections, among them Art Gallery
of Greater Victoria, British Columbia; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto;
Art Gallery of Peterborough, Ontario; Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario; Canadian
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa; Canadian Postal Museum, Ottawa;
The Dayton Art Institute, Ohio; Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Indiana;
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville; London
Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama;
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; City of Peterborough, Ontario; as well
as many corporate and private collections. |
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David Bierk,
A Eulogy (LIFE), to van Dael, 2001,
oil on canvas, 46.5 x 38.25 inches framed
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David
Bierk was named Artist-in-Residence by the Canada Council, St. Catherines,
and the Canada Council, North Bay, Ontario. He also received three grant
awards from the Canada Council. |
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David Bierk,
A Eulogy to Earth, after Gauguin, 1993, 2002,
oil on canvas, oil on copper, steel, 28.5 x 41.5 inches framed
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DAVID
BIERK ARTIST PAGE
IN
MEMORY of DAVID BIERK
DAVID
BIERK BIOGRAPHY
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