Ivan Kenneth Eyre (15 April 1935 – 5 November 2022) was a Canadian artist best known for his
prairie
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
landscapes and compositionally abstract, figurative paintings. In addition, Eyre was a
Professor Emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of painting and drawing at the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba. He has been described as a "visual philosopher" and "a true outsider and visionary".
Ivan Eyre's paintings and drawings have been exhibited internationally and are featured in numerous galleries across Canada. His sculptures are prominently displayed at
Assiniboine Park
Assiniboine Park (formerly known as City Park) is a park in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, located along the Assiniboine River.
The Winnipeg Public Parks Board was formed in 1893, and purchased the initial land for the park in 1904. Although in use ...
Kleinburg, Ontario
Kleinburg is an unincorporated village in the city of Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, an art gallery with a focus on the Group of Seven, and the Kortright Centre for Conservation. In 2001, the vill ...
.
Biography
Ivan Eyre was born to Thomas and Katie Eyre in Tullymet, Saskatchewan in 1935. Eyre began school at the age of five, during which time his family relocated twice: first to Southey in 1940, then again to
Ituna
Ituna () is a town in Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2006, it had a population of 622. It is north-east of the capital Regina.
The town contains several businesses serving the local residents and rural community, including financial services, groc ...
in 1941. Shortly thereafter, Katie and her three children left their rural environment and moved to urban Saskatoon while Thomas Eyre worked abroad as an Air Force electrician.
Eyre developed an artistic interest at an early age. At the age of 15, while still a high school student, he began taking after-school art lessons at the Saskatoon Technical Collegiate where he studied under
Ernest Lindner
Ernst Friedrich Lindner LL. D. (1 May 1897 – 4 November 1988) was an Austrian-born Canadian painter. He moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1926, where became a self-taught commercial artist. He soon was recognized locally and then nationally a ...
for the duration of 1950–1953. According to Eyre: "Knowing that there was somebody seriously committed to art, somebody who had made it his life's work, was encouraging. indner'sinfluence in this regard was important."
Eyre went on to attend evening classes at the
University of Saskatchewan
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
which were taught by Eli Bornstein in his final year of high school.
In 1953, Eyre moved to
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
where he attended the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Chicago Art Institute
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and list of largest art museums, largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visit ...
. He was a pupil of artists
Wynona Mulcaster
Wynona Croft Mulcaster (April 10, 1915 – August 25, 2016) was a Canadian painter and teacher from Saskatchewan, best known for her prairie landscapes. She also played an important role in developing competitive riding in Saskatoon.
Life
Wy ...
and George Swinton. During his schooling as an undergraduate, Eyre exhibited several works at the
Winnipeg Art Gallery
The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is an art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Its permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian, Indigenous Canadian, and international artists. The museum also holds the world's largest collect ...
, winning the attention and support of then gallery director, Ferdinand Eckhardt. Eyre received the Winnipeg Art Gallery Scholarship for his achievements in 1956. Around the time of his graduation, he married Brenda Yvonne Fenske, a peer student at the university.
Eyre continued on to the
University of North Dakota
The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of ...
,
Grand Forks
Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city o ...
, in 1958–59 as a master's candidate where he both studied and taught as a graduate assistant. He completed several sculptural projects, among them his "first wooden head" which is currently stored in a private collection in Ottawa. The American art scene was in full swing and Eyre's paintings became open to influences from such artists like
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...
,
Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky (; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, hy, Ոստանիկ Մանուկ Ատոյեան; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of his ...
,
Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...
, and
Max Beckmann
Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920 ...
.
Professorship
Due to financial difficulties, Eyre and his wife returned to Winnipeg in 1959 where he was hired on a part-time basis by the University of Manitoba's School of Art. For one year, Eyre taught painting and drawing to students in
Brandon
Brandon may refer to:
Names and people
*Brandon (given name), a male given name
* Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins
Places
Australia
*Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales
*Brandon, Q ...
and
Neepawa
Neepawa is a town in Manitoba, Canada located on the Yellowhead Highway at the intersection with Highway 5. its population was 5,685. Neepawa was incorporated as a town in 1883. It is bordered by the Municipality of North Cypress – Langford and ...
as part of the university's extension course program. In 1960, Eyre became a full-time instructor, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1992.
Eyre began developing his individualistic style during this period. Eyre remembers that around 1960–1962, "I began to reevaluate my work and decided to begin afresh....I worked at ridding myself of all influences."
In 1966, the
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal i ...
provided Eyre with a Canada Council Senior Arts Grant which allowed him and his family to spend a year and four months in Europe. Upon his return, Eyre wrote a report for the Canada Council of his experiences, criticizing "what was, for the most part, being hailed in the major centres as 'breakthroughs' in paintings."
At Eckhardt's recommendation, Eyre's work was selected for an exhibition at the ''Frankfurter Kunstkabinett'' in 1973 and entered the German art world with great success.
Work
Working primarily in oil and acrylic mediums, Eyre's figurative paintings and still lifes tend to be spatially complex, his landscapes large and panoramic. Canadian art historian
Joan Murray
Joan Murray (born August 6, 1945) is an American poet, writer, playwright and editor. She is best known for her narrative poems, particularly her book-length novel-in-verse, ''Queen of the Mist''; her collection ''Looking for the Parade'' which ...
commented on the expressiveness of Eyre's work, noting that Eyre's corpus reflects the artist's imagination, memories, and perceptions of the world. Eyre's subjects and approaches are versatile and prone to mutability. Murray also claimed that Eyre's art "has, to a degree unusual in Canadian art: a pervading sense of stillness and calm." James D. Campbell remarked on Eyre's "existential sensibility" by pointing to the dark and violent undercurrents in Eyre's thematic reinterpretations of the world.
Eyre rejects the notion of "schools" or "movements", whether coined as such by art historians or artists. Prioritizing the concept of artist-as-individual-creator above all else, Eyre has criticized movements such as the ''avant garde'' for restricting the creative capabilities of artists who fall under their umbrella and binding their adherents to a specific style or direction.
In 1974, the Winnipeg Art Gallery purchased Eyre's 1973 painting ''Tanglewood'' for a record-breaking price never before paid for the work of a Manitoba artist. Today, a typical Eyre painting has an auction value of approximately $30,000 to upwards of $300,000.
Ivan Eyre Gallery
The third floor of the
Assiniboine Park
Assiniboine Park (formerly known as City Park) is a park in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, located along the Assiniboine River.
The Winnipeg Public Parks Board was formed in 1893, and purchased the initial land for the park in 1904. Although in use ...
pavilion museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba is named for Ivan Eyre who is one of several Manitoban artists (including
Walter J. Phillips
Walter Joseph Phillips (October 25, 1884 – July 5, 1963) was an English-born Canadian painter and printmaker. He is credited with popularizing the colour woodcut in the style of the Japanese, in Canada.
Life
Phillips was born in Barton-upon-H ...
and Clarence Tillenius) honored and exhibited at the pavilion. The ''WAG @ The Park'' initiative launched in fall of 2016 upon completion of renovations due to moisture and roof leaks. In collaboration with the Assiniboine conservancy, the Winnipeg Art Gallery agreed to curate free exhibitions in the revamped space using only works by Eyre, Phillips, and Tillenius.
The Assiniboine Park conservancy houses Canada's largest collection of Eyre's art, made possible by Eyre's donation of 200 paintings, 5000 drawings, and 16 sculptures to the park. The current exhibition is titled "Wasteland Dreamland: Early Works by Ivan Eyre, 1957-1969."
Honours
* 1974:
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880.
History 1880 to 1890
The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...
, elected member elect
* 1977: Queen's Silver Jubilee medal
* 1982: University of Manitoba Alumni Jubilee award
* 2002: Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal
* 2007:
Order of Manitoba
The Order of Manitoba (french: Ordre du Manitoba) is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Instituted in 1999 when Lieutenant Governor Peter Liba granted Royal Assent to The Order of Manitoba Act, the order is administe ...
* 2008: honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Manitoba
* 2015:
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
with the grade of member
List of solo exhibitions
* 1962: The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. ''Ivan Eyre Drawings'' (c. 5 December)
* 1964: The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. '' ne-artist' (1964)
* 1964: The
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square ...
. '' ne-artist' (–8 March)
* 1964: The Winnipeg Art Gallery. ''Ivan Eyre''
* 1965: Fleet Gallery, Winnipeg. ''Ivan Eyre'' (–23 February)
* 1965: Albert White Galleries, Toronto. ''Ivan Eyre, Winnipeg'' (c. 17 April – 4 May)
* 1966: Yellow Door Gallery, Winnipeg. '' ne-artist'
* 1966: The Winnipeg Art Gallery. ''Ivan Eyre Drawings'' (27 September – 16 October)
* 1967: Atelier Vincitore Gallery,
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, England. ''Painting, Sculpture, Drawing by Ivan Eyre'' (27 January – 11 February)
* 1968: Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon. ''Ivan Eyre'' (20 February – 25 March)
* 1969: The Morris Gallery, Toronto. '' ne-artist' (Spring)
* 1969: Fleet Gallery, Winnipeg. '' ne-artist' (c. 1 May)
* 1971: The Morris Gallery, Toronto. ''Ivan Eyre, New Paintings and Sculpture'' (27 February – 13 March)
* 1973–1974: Frankfurter Kunstkabinett, West Germany. ''Ivan Eyre''
* 1973: Burnaby Art Gallery. ''Ivan Eyre: Sculpture, Paintings, Drawings'' (2–27 May)
* 1973: The Morris Gallery, Toronto. ''Ivan Eyre'' (5–19 May)
* 1973: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. ''Drawings by Ivan Eyre'' (8 May – 3 June)
* 1973: McIntosh Gallery,
The University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames Ri ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. ''Ivan Eyre'' (17 October – 18 November)
* 1974: The Winnipeg Art Gallery. ''Ivan Eyre: Recent Paintings and Sculpture'' (c. 21 March – 9 June)
* 1976: Playhouse Theatre, Fredericton/New Brunswick Museum, Saint John. ''Ivan Eyre, paintings'' (18–31 October, 5 –26 November)
* 1976: Gallery 111, School of Art, The University of Manitoba. ''Ivan Eyre: Recent Paintings and Sculpture'' (c. 21 March – 9 June)
* 1978: The National Gallery of Canada. ''Ivan Eyre Drawings''
* 1979: Mira Godard Gallery, Calgary. ''Ivan Eyre'' (26 October – 17 November)
* 2017: The Winnipeg Art Gallery. ''Ivan Eyre: Landscapes and Still Lifes'' (15 September – 29 October)
Notes
References
* Balkind, A., Bringhurst. R. (1983). Visions: Contemporary art in Canada. Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
* Bovey, Patricia E., and Ivan Eyre. Ivan Eyre, Drawings, 1965–1981 : 15 April – 15 June 1982. Victoria, B.C.: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1982.
* Campbell, James D., Ivan Eyre, and Andrew Oko. Masks & Shadows : The Art of Ivan Eyre. Regina:
Mackenzie Art Gallery
The MacKenzie Art Gallery (MAG; french: Musee d’art MacKenzie) is an art museum located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The museum occupies the multipurpose T. C. Douglas Building, situated at the edge of the Wascana Centre. The building holds e ...
, 1996.
* ---. Masks & Shadows : The Art of Ivan Eyre. Regina: Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1996.
*
* Eyre, Ivan, and Helen Coy. Recent Paintings & Drawings. [Winnipeg: Gallery 111, 1976.
* Eyre, Ivan. Ivan Eyre : Recent Paintings and Sculpture : A Winnipeg Centennial Exhibition, the Winnipeg Art Gallery – 1974. Winnipeg: The Gallery, 1974.
* ---. Ivan Eyre : The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 18 Dec. 1969 – 18 Jan. 1970. [Winnipeg?: s.n., 1969.
* Heath, Terrence, and Ivan Eyre. Ivan Eyre : Personal Mythologies. Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1988.
* Murray, Joan, and Ivan Eyre. Ivan Eyre : Exposition. Oshawa, [Ont.]: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1980.
* Murray, Joan. Ivan Eyre : Exposition. Oshawa, Ont.: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1980.
* Winnipeg, Man Art Gallery, I. Eyre, and T. Heath. Ivan Eyre – Personal Mythologies. 1988:, 1988.
* Winnipeg, Man Art Gallery. Ivan Eyre. 1969:, 1969.
* ---. Ivan Eyre: Recent Paintings and Sculpture. 1974:, 1974.
* Woodcock, George, and Ivan Eyre. Ivan Eyre. Don Mills, Ont: Fitzhenny & Whiteside, 1981.
* Woodcock, George. Ivan Eyre. Don Mills, Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1981.
* ---. Ivan Eyre. Don Mills, Ont.: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1981.