Man on the Bridge, 1963

Lillian Adamson, Winnipeg Private Collection, Winnipeg

“Ivan Eyre: Personal Mythologies”, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, travelling to Winnipeg Art Gallery; Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary; The Edmonton Art Gallery; London Regional Art Gallery, 28 September 1988‒21 January 1990, no. 5

Terrence Heath, “Ivan Eyre: Personal Mythologies”, Winnipeg, 1988, no. 5, reproduced page 33 Donalda Johnson, “Eyre With Honour”, Winnipeg, 1994, page 8 “Ivan Eyre: The Paintings”, Assiniboine Park, 2004, pages 18-19 Denis Cooley, Amy Karlinsky and Mary Reid, “Figure Ground: The Paintings and Drawings of Ivan Eyre”, Winnipeg, 2005, pages 17-18

Ivan 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.” Drawing mostly on memory and dream imagery, Eyre created many surreal, post-apocalyptic scenes in the early 1960s, including “Man on the Bridge”. Dating to 1963, the oil on canvas depicts a view across a river that is connected by a bridge. While we can recognize a figure standing on the bridge and a glimpse of another person in the foreground, most of what is on the far side of the water is only somewhat discernible to the eye, as the forms are heavily stylized and tightly arranged. Upon a very close inspection, we are able to identify a boat, another figure, some trees and a building, but much remains a mystery. The artist’s commitment to engaging the viewer is evident here; he brings us on “an active journey through his work by creating paths of movement.” Eyre creates pathways for the eyes through his marvelous pointed shapes which twist and overlap within the landscape. This realm of unidentifiable figuration, yet separate from abstraction, is a unique and intriguing characteristic of Eyre’s work. Eyre created over one hundred canvases in this dream-like style in the early 1960s, though many of the works ended up being destroyed by the artist. Ivan Eyre was heavily influenced by the Canadian prairie landscape, commenting on the landscape genre of painting: “The subject is inexhaustible. Infinite possibilities exist. It’s still possible to make of a landscape a very personal statement even a radical one, different from anything previous.”