- David Bierk
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David Bierk (9 June 1944, Appleton, Minnesota – August 28, 2002), was an American-born Canadian painter. His work is exhibited at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York City. According to Askart.com ([1][2]), Bierk was primarily active in California and Canada, and he was best known for producing landscape paintings, as well as paintings incorporating "Old Master appropriations". Bierk evidently became a Canadian citizen, for Artcyclopedia.com calls him an "American-born Canadian Painter"[3]. According to artnet.com, Bierk became a Canadian citizen in 1978 [4]. Under the heading of "Paintings in Museums and Public Art Galleries" for this artist, Artcyclopedia lists the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia; the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Ontario; and the Ellen Gallery at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.
Among David Bierk's children are actress Dylan Bierk, professional hockey goal tender Zac Bierk, Toronto based photographer Jeff Bierk, Toronto based painters Charles Bierk, Nick and Alex Bierk and former lead singer of Skid Row Sebastian Bach. His most widely recognizable work is the 1991 album cover of Skid Row's Slave to the Grind.
Contents
Critical appraisal: "virtuoso" post-modernist
In a June 2001 Art in America review, critic Jonathan Goodman writes that "Bierk quotes from the past not so much to critique current art as to reinterpret a way of seeing that he associates with artists as disparate as Vermeer, Eakins, Ingres, Manet and Fantin-Latour", and that Bierk "accomplishes this particularly well when he starkly juxtaposes two or three of his eclectic art-historical references within a single work." Noting the work's "virtuoso" technical quality, Goodman also observes that Bierk's "marvelously romantic" landscape paintings are, unlike these referential paintings, invented images, rather than appropriated or copied from masterworks. [5] Both Goodman's review and Bierk's 2002 New York Times obituary note that Bierk used framing to call attention, in a way that is pointedly "postmodern", to the historical disjunction between the evoked masterworks and the contemporary cultural environment: "He painted copies of works by artists like Vermeer or the Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church, for example, and framed them within broad steel panels, setting up a tension between humanism and old masterly craft on the one hand, and Modernist abstraction and industrial fabrication on the other." [6] Thus, the manner in which the painting is framed is often intrinsic to the work itself.
Education
- M.F.A. Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
- B.A. Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
- California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California
Art shows and museums
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, Ontario
- Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio
- Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana
- Flint Institute of the Arts, Flint, 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, Las Vegas, Nevada
- London Regional Art and Historical Museum, London, Ontario
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
- Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York
- MoMA extension at Pfizer, New York City
- Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama
- New York Academy of Sciences, New York City
- Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough, Ontario
- Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia
- Many corporate and private venues
Bierk art collections
David Bierk's works are found in many public collections, including:
- Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Vancouver, British Columbia
- Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
- Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough, Ontario
- The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario
- Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario
- Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida
- Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, Ontario
- Canadian Postal Museum, Ottawa, Ontario
- The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio
- Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana
- Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
- London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario
- Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama
- National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
- City of Peterborough, Ontario
- Many corporate and private collections
Awards
Bierk was named Artist-in-Residence by the Canada Council, St. Catharines, and the Canada Council, North Bay, Ontario. He received three grant awards from the Canada Council.
Bierk gained many awards for his work throughout his life including:
- Music Awards
- 1991 Best Album Cover of the Year, RAW Magazine
- 1981 Canada Council Artist-in-Residence, St. Catharines, Ontario
- 1980-81 Ontario Association of Art Galleries Poster Design, First Prize
- 1980 Ontario Association of Art Galleries Catalogue Design, First Prize
- 1979-80 Ontario Association of Art Galleries, Best Overall Gallery Image, First Prize
- 1979 Ontario Association of Art Galleries, Newsletter Design, First Prize
- Canada Council Artist-in-Residence, North Bay, Ontario
- 1978 Canada Council Short Term Grant
- 1974, 1986, 1987 Canada Council Project Grant
- 1975, 1983, 1985 Canada Council "B" Grant
Art commissions
Bierk was commissioned by many organizations including:
- Atlantic Records, New York City (album cover and design)
- Billingsley Company, Dallas, Texas
- Canada Post Corporation, Ottawa, Ontario (postage stamp design)
- Canadore College, North Bay, Ontario
- Delta Vancouver Suites Hotel, Vancouver, British Columbia
- Gardner Carton & Douglas, Inc., Chicago, Illinois
- I.O.D.E., Peterborough, Ontario
- Intrawest Corporation, Vancouver, British Columbia
- Music Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
- NTT, Tokyo, Japan
- Government of Ontario, Ministry of Health, Kingston, Ontario
- Government of Ontario, Ministry of Revenue, Ottawa, Ontario
- Princess Hotels Ltd., Scottsdale, Arizona
- Ramada Renaissance Hotel, Los Angeles, California
- RJR Nabisco, New York City
- Saks Fifth Avenue, Charleston, South Carolina
- Sheraton Grande Hotel, Los Angeles, California
- Sir Sandford Fleming College, Peterborough, Ontario
- Star Canyon Restaurant, Dallas, Texas
- Stitzel Company, San Francisco, California
- U.S. State Department, Washington, D.C.
- USA Group, Indianapolis, Indiana
- Watergate Hotel, Washington, D.C.
- Wedgewood Hotel, Vancouver, British Columbia
- Windsor Arms Hotel, Toronto, Ontario
- Wood Gundy at Park Place, Vancouver, British Columbia
Death
David Bierk died in Peterborough, Ontario in August 2002, aged 57, from cancer.
References
- ^ "David Bierk - Artist, Art - David Bierk". Askart.com. 2008-05-26. http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=113110. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
- ^ "David Bierk - Keywords David Bierk". Askart.com. http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?searchtype=KEYWORDS&artist=113110. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
- ^ "David Bierk Online". Artcyclopedia.com. http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/bierk_david.html. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
- ^ "David Bierk on artnet". Artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/artist/722235/david-bierk.html. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "David Bierk, 58, Canadian Artist Who Reinterpreted Masterworks - New York Times". Nytimes.com. 2002-09-07. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/07/arts/david-bierk-58-canadian-artist-who-reinterpreted-masterworks.html. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
External links
- Askart.com page with several color images of paintings by Bierk
- Art Gallery of Victoria, British Columbia: link to information on at least twelve paintings by Bierk in this public collection, including color images.
- Artcyclopedia.com on David Bierk
Categories:- 1944 births
- 2002 deaths
- American expatriates in Canada
- Canadian painters
- People from Swift County, Minnesota
- Cancer deaths in Ontario
- American painters
- Canadian people of Norwegian descent
- Postmodern artists
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