Lot 27
DAVID BIERK
Literature:
Charles C. Hill, Morrice: A Gift to the Nation: The G. Blair Laing Collection, Ottawa, 1992, page 48 (Figure 8) for a reproduction of A Wet Night on the Boulevard St-Germain, Paris.
Various Contributors, In The Absence of Paradise: The Art of David
Bierk, Ottawa, 1994, page 51.
Note:
With this work, Bierk has skillfully reproduced James Wilson Morrice’s canvas A Wet Night On The Boulevard St-Germain, Paris (circa 1895-96). Morrice’s work, part of G. Blair Laing’s gift of eighty-three works by the artist to the National Gallery of Canada, “is primarily concerned with the reflections of the lights” and is “painted blacks, greys, and blues, with reflections in cool yellow-green”, all of which has been captured masterfully by David Bierk.
Daniel Sharp describes not only Bierk’s reproduction of works by master artists whom he admired, but also his representation of works by these artists within his own original works of art. “Working spontaneously, freely, intuitively, Bierk deploys images of artworks for which he has long held affection, as well as additional images he comes across which serve in some way to provoke him. The process is energetic, eclectic, and brash, and produces an impression of reckless plunder, a sort of aesthetic piracy… Bierk works out a kind of headlong joy in and love for the history of painting itself. It is in some way the shimmering history of painting in which Bierk desires to be a full participant, and we might reasonably suggest that it is this idea of painting that he loves more than the historical paintings themselves.”
This work was commissioned directly from the artist as a tribute to Morrice.