“When David Bierk uses the term eulogy … it connotes mourning – for past art, for the plight of Earth and mankind, perhaps for loved ones. There is a funereal hush implied in these paintings; they speak in the low whispers of museums and cathedrals.” Cory Dugan
Eulogy to the Earth – Dusk, 1996, oil on canvas, 38 x 38 inches framed
Earth Eulogy, A Distant Light, Pond at Twilight, 1999
David Bierk’s Eulogy to Earth paintings are a memorial to our planet, a remembrance of her glory before industrialization marred her surface and mined her resources. As with the rest of his paintings, Bierk was examining the human condition through referencing art history. While he was perhaps best know for his images appropriated from western art history, in Eulogy to Earth we find many landscapes that, while reminiscent of Whistler and Turner, are of his own making.
Bathed in golden light, these landscapes conjure Earth’s most magnificent hours. Set in industrial steel and heavy wood frames, the fruits of the Earth enshrine Bierk’s glossy, pristine landscapes. By juxtaposing these romanticized pastoral scenes with weighty frames, some even painted on metal, he reminds us of our fracture with nature.
A Eulogy to Earth and Mankind - Another History, to Bierstadt, 1995
“The eulogy series of paintings is a mournful embrace of the ephemeral aspects of art, life and humanity. The juxtaposition between contemporary and historical forms serves to reinforce this in a startling visual way that seeks equilibrium between the forces that dominate our daily lives. ” Milena Placentile
Related Items
- Remembering David Bierk
- David Bierk’s Townships box set
- Use of Industrial Material in David Bierk’s paintings
- Available works by David Bierk
- Books
