A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II which overlooked the ice at the Peterborough Memorial Centre for nearly five decades will find a new home at the Art Gallery of Peterborough.
The gallery announced Friday that it recently acquired the artwork by the late David Bierk. His “Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II” was installed at the Memorial Centre on Jan. 9, 1980, and remained until the State Funeral of the Queen on Sept. 19, 2022.
The painting, which measures eight feet by 12 feet, was commissioned by the Major Bennett Chapter of the IODE for the Memorial Centre to commemorate the group’s 60th anniversary with matching funds from a Wintario Grant.
Bierk was selected from a list of potential artists by jurors Illi-Maria Tamplin and Zoltan Temesy, then gallery board director and chair.
The original commissioning documents, which are held at Trent Valley Archives in Peterborough, state that if the painting ever needed to be removed it should be donated to the Art Gallery of Peterborough, or the Peterborough Public Library, whichever was preferred.
The City of Peterborough provided that information to the gallery that was reviewed by its acquisitions committee. The committee made the recommendation in December 2022 to the board of directors, which is the owner of the gallery’s permanent collection.
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The artwork was recently relocated to the gallery’s storage vault. There it will be cleaned and integrated into the permanent collection.
“The AGP makes collection decisions very carefully following best practice standards,” said Catharine Blastorah, chair of the board and acquisitions committee.
“Whenever we accept a work into the collection, we make that decision for our and future generations. This painting, which is based on a photograph of the queen taken during her Silver Jubilee visit to Canada, is a welcome addition to the gallery’s collection, which holds very few early works by the artist.”
Current city councillor Alex Bierk, chair of the city’s arts, culture and heritage portfolio, said his father’s artwork was a huge part of his childhood. His brother Zac was a former Peterborough Petes player. David Bierk is also the father of Sebastian Bach, former lead singer of the band Skid Row.
“Growing up, I saw my dad’s massive painting of the queen at Petes games, high in the Memorial Centre,” said Alex.
“My brother Zac told me how players tried to aim for it with pucks during practice. I find it special how the painting intersects my dad’s love of sports and his life as an artist, and how it hung over my brother Zac’s head in goal as he played for the Petes.”
Briefly in 2003, the painting was removed from its original location due to arena renovations. However, public protest saw the portrait rehung.
“The public reacted strongly when it was taken down,” recalled Alex. “I’m so happy that it ended up in the collection of the Art Gallery of Peterborough to be kept safe and continue to live on in our community.”
The Queen Elizabeth II portrait will join over 100 works by Bierk at the gallery.
About the artist
Bierk, a native of Appleton, Minn., immigrated to Canada and in 1972 took up a teaching position at Kenner Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Peterborough.
After two years teaching high school art, he moved on to teach at Fleming College where he remained for five years. In 1974 he became a founding member of Peterborough’s artist-run centre, Artspace, of which he was the director until 1987.
The gallery says Bierk worked in the postmodern genre, in which images and form appropriated from art history and mass media are juxtaposed to prompt philosophical reflections on art, modern culture and history.
In 1998 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Artists. Bierk also established an international reputation for his work from his Peterborough studio up until his passing in 2002.
He was posthumously awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and his work is held in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canada Council Art Bank, and the Art Gallery of Peterborough.
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