Ivan Eyre Alyssa Love Pangan History 2 Ross Sundmark April 15, 2011
Ivan Eyre
Ivan Eyre
Long Umber Rough Acrylic on Canvas
Riding up the elevator, anticipating viewing the last gallery at the Pavilion Gallery at Assiniboine Park. Not knowing what to expect, the door finally opens and I stare in amazement! The large-scale painting, ‘Long Umber Rough’ is all that catches your attention. As I walk closer, the more I appreciate the artwork.
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Ivan Kenneth Eyre is a painter, sculptor, graphic artist, print maker and educator. He was born in Tullymet, Saskatchewan. His family lived in Red Deer, Alberta and since 1953 his home has been Winnipeg, Manitoba. His painting and graphic mediums are acrylic, oil, graphite, conte crayon, woodcuts and mixed mediums. His sculptures are bronze, terra cotta, plaster and wood. His subjects are of landscapes, figures, fantasy, spiritualism, symbolism, portraits, social commentary, mythology, allegory, colour, texture and shape. His styles are Realism, Surrealism, Expressionism and Abstraction.
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public collection of Eyre’s works including two hundred paintings, over five thousand drawings and sixteen sculptures. The third floor of the facility is permanently dedicated to rotating exhibitions of this collection.
Long Umber Rough Ivan Eyre created large paintings between the years of 1974 through 1982 along with the Long Umber Rough. Many say that this was made at the time that he was at his best, although turning seventy-six today, he continues creating many other creative works.
Eyre attended the University of Manitoba School of Art and the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. He studied under artists Eli Bornstein, Wynona Mulcaster, Ernest Lindner, and George Swinton. Eyre held a professorship at the University of Manitoba School of Art from 1959 to 1992. Ivan Eyre’s work is featured in many galleries in Canada. His works are in many private and corporate collections. Some permanent collections are located in museums including the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and many more. The National Gallery of Canada has sixteen of his paintings in its collection. The Pavilion Gallery in Winnipeg houses the largest
The Long Umber Rough is an imaginary landscape or mindscape. The painting was purchased for $255,000. The painting is made up of five panels and is sixty-eight inches tall by a hundred and forty-three inches wide. The large painting would require an office environment considering the scale of the piece, which is why it is located at the Pavilion Gallery in Assiniboine Park along with hundreds of his other works. I chose this painting because it had more meaning to me than any of his other artworks. The Pavilion Gallery was actually the first gallery I’ve ever been to. What blew me away was the scale of the painting and learning that he did not paint it from direct observation but directly from his mind. Previewing this painting up close looked as if it was finished with a pointillism technique except with blotches of paint instead of dots. From afar, the painting looked so realistic via the curved shapes forming the valleys and the mountains. The blue sky and the mountains in the distance contain a rich contrast between
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the dark and neutral colours of the ground. The cliff or land that is apparent in the foreground makes you feel that you are standing within the painting. This is why the painting moved me because it reminded me of going on old family trips. My family and I used to travel across Canada to visit other family members in different provinces. We would take breaks on the way to look at the beautiful scenery. Being only seven years old, I stood on the road with my family in amazement saying repeatedly in my high-pitched voice “It’s so beautiful!” I was teased the whole trip by my older siblings even until this day. During the moment that I saw that painting it brought me a warm feeling and reminded me of flashbacks of my family trips. It’s amazing how art can bring back memories from within!
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Something less than a full understanding of a work is desirable in that it allows the painting to keep giving. A complete understanding would signify that we don’t have to think about it anymore. Some mystery should remain, compelling viewers back to the paintings... possibly to reaffirm themselves.”
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– Ivan Eyre.
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