Artist Information
Artist
Robert (Bob) Maximillian Bierman (1921-2008)Role
ArtistDate made
n.d.Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Robert (Bob) Maximillian Bierman was a well-known Canadian editorial cartoonist for Victoria, B.C. newspapers in the 1950s into the 1970s. After the World War II occupation of his country and his defiant sidewalk chalk art depicting Nazis, he worked for several Dutch publications. In 1950, Bierman immigrated to Canada and in 1954 he was hired by The Victoria Daily Times Newspaper as an editorial cartoonist. After the Times merged with its former daily rival, Bierman’s cartoons appeared in Victoria’s Times Colonist, and “Bierman’s Corner” became a staple feature of the Victoria Monday Magazine. Bierman later returned to government employment but continued to do freelance cartooning and graphics work such as for the University of Victoria in the 1980s.
Bierman was recognized as a courageous champion of the downtrodden. And in 1978, a statement by the then B.C. human resources minister (later premier 1986-1991), Bill Vander Zalm, inspired a Bierman cartoon that became famous as the first cartoon in Canada to be the subject of a libel suit. Vander Zalm said young people should be cut off welfare, and that First Nations youth should go back to their reserves. In response, Bierman depicted the minister happily pulling the wings off flies in a scathing cartoon published in The Victoria Times. Vander Zalm sued both the newspaper and the cartoonist for libel. The judgement was initially made for Vander Zalm and the decision generated outrage among cartoonists and journalists across the country and beyond. The case ultimately went to the B.C. Court of Appeal where the original decision was overturned and upheld a cartoonist’s right to engage in satire and hyperbole.
Another long-serving B.C. premier (1952 -1972), W.A.C. Bennet, was a frequent target of Bierman's forthright pen, as was the 37th U.S. President Richard Milhous Nixon during the Vietnam War era. Terry Mosher (1942-), known by his pen name Aislin and one of Canada's leading newspaper editorial cartoonists, considered Bierman to be “… one of the best kept secrets in Canadian Journalism”. Of note, Mosher also began his career as a sidewalk artist doing street caricatures. Collections of Bierman's cartoons can be found at Library and Archives Canada and Simon Fraser University (See Web Links below).