David Bierk

A Distant Light

March 25 - April 24, 1999
Artist's Reception:  Thursday, March 25, 6-8pm

The consistent themes which play throughout this and the three previous solo exhibitions of David Bierk with the gallery carry an increasing impact as we edge toward the year 2000.  Donald Kuspit has described Bierk as "a critic of modernity, trying to recover from traditional art what modernity has betrayed in nature as well as in art."*  Each work acts as a beacon, illuminating a long journey in time.  Of the new work presented in this exhibition, Bierk assesses that he is "establishing from the past a decipherable language as a means of navigating within some chaotic and disorderly present" by "making art the means to a comprehensible future - one that resurrects and regroups the human and the natural ingredients of the life into a cohabitable whole."

Portraits and figures, appropriated from the Master works of the 15th and 17th century, play a dominate role in this body of new work which are accompanied by radiant landscapes and still-lives.  The artworks are arranged in quartets and trios which resemble alter forms.  These human references evoke optimistic notions of survival, preservation and purpose evident in the glowing countenance of these varied oil portraits.  One of two appropriated Rembrandt self-portraits, this from 1659, titled A Eulogy to Art & Life, Locked in Migration, to Rembrandt, is encased with steel.   Bierk's use of this industrial material, with its wide, smooth, hard surface, serves to contrast the understood frailties and morality of the human condition as well as underline a message about strength of character.  Locked in Migration, to Van der Weyden, translated from the Dutch artist's portrait of a Young Lady, offers a sideways gaze that confronts the world through a 20th century window.  Her face, as in a mirror reflection, becomes fixed for our contemplation.  The wimple and dress of the lady cites another age long passed, yet we relate directly to her presence.

The artist's signature conceptual use of copper, steel and rusted iron board surrounds continue to push these contemporary contrasts.  In the case of Bierk's A Distant Light, Locked in Migration, to Bierstadt 1999, the appropriated 19th century landscape of 1866.  Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, is surrounded by steel which at once isolates and embraces this magnificent view of nature.

A Distant Light, to Masaccio & Manet, 35 1/2 x 53 1/2 inches, combines a number of technical processes, including ink-jet photography onto which the artist applies oil painting.  The diptych is divided uniquely by materials and historical context.  Through vertical peepholes we are made to see targeted illuminated fragments of figural and still-life compositions.  Manet's flowers glow against their deep, black field.  Bierk shadows Masaccio's figures surrounding the anointment scene which further highlights the drama and the event portrayed.

Associated American Artists is pleased to announce that the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art in Montgomery, Alabama will mount a first American retrospective for Bierk in the later part of 1999 and into the next millennium.

*Donald Kuspit David Bierk Another History 1995.    Associated American Artists

Gallery Contact:  Carol McCranie
email: aaa@agrp.com
  

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