David Bierk
"History"
January 7 - February 7, 2006 |
| Following
"Sanctuary," "Life" and "Memory," the fourth
exhibition of David Bierk's paintings is entitled "History," for
a word the artist used in his paintings. "History" was viewed at the Selby
Gallery, Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. It will
travel to the Butler Institute of American Art as its final venue in March
2006. A catalogue accompanies the exhibition with an essay by Mark Daniel
Cohen, and a foreword by Selby and Butler museum directors, Kevin Dean,
and Louis A. Zona, respectively. |
David Bierk,
Approaching the 21st Century/An Allegory of Balances (HISTORY), to Mantegna,
1993, oil on canvas, 69 x 105 inches |
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David Bierk,
A Eulogy (MEMORY), Myth and History, to Lotto,
1999, oil on canvas, 40 x 68 inches |
| Each posthumous
show has been organized around a different Bierk theme, the first being
an overall view of the work; the second included landscapes, with no figure
or history paintings; the third was an homage to the artists of antiquity,
including works after Greek and Roman sculptures, with a few landscapes.
"History" presents some of the artist's most heroic works and combines Bierk's
history paintings with his lush, painterly, invented landscapes.
|
David Bierk,
A Eulogy to Life (BELIEVE) to Ribera,
1996, oil on canvas, steel, 71 x 85 inches |
| Before the
term "appropriation" existed to describe works in which artists
borrowed from and mimicked the masters, Bierk was looking to art history
as a source, resource, and inspiration. Throughout Bierk's practice, and
as early as graduate school, his focus was to honor the masters, paying
homage to the great painters, re-presenting their works in a post-modern
context, juxtaposing a painting from the masters with one of his own invented
lush landscapes; or partnering masterworks of two different centuries from
two different countries with two different subjects. The tension created
by this partnering and the dialogue that resulted is what engaged Bierk's
mind and eye and hand. He was not seeking to create a harmonious pairing;
he was opening a visual conversation with the viewer. In "History"
Bierk's honoring of the masters spans centuries and countries, from Lotto
to Manet to deChirico to Fantin LaTour and della Francesca. |
David Bierk,
A Eulogy to Art, David Watching, to Manet, 1993-2001,
oil on canvas, oil on photograph on board, steel, 32 x 65 inches |
| Mark Daniel
Cohen writes: "Bierk's paintings possess a sense of the weight of history,
of the weightiness, the gravity, the quality of import and meaning, of importance,
in what has come before us. There is a sense of deep respect that seems
to radiate from his works--enacted, captured, and conveyed in the use of
paint, in the mastery of the bravura style, in the lushness, the care, the
loving lavishness of craft. It is an embrace of great art, for Bierk's use
of paint is a physical affection, a dance of artistic movement across the
surface of his works, the weight of art history not a burden, not an anxiety
of influence--in which the artist chafes under the pressure of the greatness
that preceded him, the greatness to which he cannot live up--but a privilege,
and a joy, an inimitable joy." |
David Bierk,
Requiem for a Planet, to van Dost and Fantin-Latour, 2001-2002,
oil on inkjet photograph on canvas, oil on canvas, 42 x 65 inches |
| 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. |
David Bierk,
Summer Sky, (BALANCE), 1989, oil on canvas, 32 x 72 inches |
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David Bierk,
Self-Portrait to Cezanne and Earth,
1989-1991, oil on canvas, oil on board, steel, 45 x 76 inches |
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| David Bierk's
work has been widely shown throughout the United States and Canada at 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,
Science and History, 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, among others,
as well as many corporate and private venues. |
David Bierk,
A nAllegory of Balance, to Earth and de La Tour, 1995-2001,
oil on copper, oil on linen, steel, 20 x 38 inches |
| The work of
David Bierk is included in many public collections, among them Art Gallery
of Algoma, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario; 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, Science and History, Indiana; Knoxville
Museum of Art, Tennessee; London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario;
Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, Ontario; Montgomery Museum of Fine
Arts, Alabama; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; City of Peterborough,
Ontario; Tom Thompson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario; as well
as many corporate and private collections. |
 
David Bierk,
Locked in Migration, to della Francesca, no.1, 1998, oil on canvas, steel,
54 x 53 inches
David Bierk, Locked in Migration, to della Francesca, no.2, 1998, oil on
canvas, steel, 54 x 53 inches |
| David Bierk
was named Artist-in-Residence by the Canada Council, St. Catherines, and
the Canada Council, North Bay, Ontario. He received the Queen's Golden Jubilee
Award (posthumous) and three grant awards from the Canada Council. |
David Bierk,
A Eulogy, to Bierstadt, 1996, oil on canvas, steel 44 x 51 inches |
| |
David Bierk,
Requiem for a Planet, Locked in Migration, to de Chirico no.2,
1994-2001, oil on paper, oil on canvas, steel, 25 x 36 inches |
David Bierk,
Requiem for a Planet, Locked in Migration, to de Chirico no.1,
1994-2001, oil on paper, oil on canvas, steel, 26 x 36 inches |
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David Bierk,
Locked in Migration, Catskills Clearing, 1998,
oil and rusted iron on paper, 23 x 30 inches |
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David Bierk,
Requiem, Twilight, 2001-2002, oil on board, 24 x 24 inches
David Bierk, Requiem, Daybreak, 2001-2002, oil on board, 24 x 24 inches |
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David Bierk,
Kawartha Stream/Golden Sky,
1993, oil on paper and plaster on board, 25 x 32 inches |
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David Bierk,
Requiem for a Planet (LIFE) after George Hetzel,
1989, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 inches |
|
Link
to" Sanctuary" David Bierk's 2003 exhibition
Link
to "Memory" David Bierk's 2004 exhibition
Link
to "Life" David Bierk's 2005 exhibition
Link
to "Photomontage" David Bierk exhibition
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