Lot 4
DAVID BIERK
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In his artistic practice, David Bierk worked in the postmodern genre by appropriating old master paintings of art history and juxtaposing them with the style and aesthetic of modern culture and mass media. This re-presentation of old work in a new context turns historical masterpieces into lively, modernized masterpieces of the contemporary period. It is through this practice that Bierk’s creations reflect on culture, art, history, and philosophy.
He painted copies of works by artists like Vermeer, Ingres (as seen here in A Eulogy to Life, Locked in Migration,To Ingres), and famed artists of the Hudson River School. His manipulation of the work creates a tension between old masterly craft on the one hand, and Modernist abstraction and industrial fabrication on the other. The audience is urged to reflect on and understand the past in order to embrace the present.
Bierk unfortunately passed in 2002, however his work lives on in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Canada Council Art Bank as well as numerous private collections.