Canal Square, 1992 by Ivan Kenneth Eyre
Ivan Eyre
Canal Square, 1992
acrylic on canvas
signed lower left; titled and dated 1992 on the stretcher bar on the reverse
87.75 x 87.75 in ( 222.9 x 222.9 cm )
Auction Estimate: $60,000.00 - $80,000.00
Price Realized $264,000.00
Sale date: November 27th 2024
Gift of the Artist
Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery
"Contemporary Manitoba Art from the Collection", Winnipeg Art Gallery, 4 February-15 March 1994
"Into Our Collection: Staff Picks", Winnipeg Art Gallery, 26 June-4 October 2008
Michael Hartley, "Senior I Art Interim Guide 1993", Manitoba Education and Training, 1993, reproduced page 133
"Tableau", Winnipeg Art Gallery, January/February 1995, Vol. 8-1, reproduced pages 3, 8
"Senior 3 English Language Arts (30S): Literary Focus: A Course for Distance Learning, Field Validation Version", Manitoba Education and Training and Youth, n.d., unpaginated, reproduced
Denis Cooley, Amy Karlinsky and Mary Reid, "Figure Ground: The Paintings and Drawings of Ivan Eyre", Winnipeg, 2005, page 19
"MyWAG", Winnipeg Art Gallery, Spring/Summer 2018, reproduced page 12
Landscape painting is paramount in Ivan Eyre's art, with the scenery of Saskatchewan and Manitoba figuring prominently as works of imagination, an ode to the artist’s personal history. Commenting on the landscape genre of painting, the artist stated: “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.”
Sometimes identified as a Surrealist, Eyre would simply state that his work is characterized by his own personal mythology. "Canal Square" is a prime example of one of Eyre’s later large-scale cityscapes with a surrealist and dream-like quality. As the title suggests, it depicts a city square with tall buildings and highly stylized and distorted figures. This realm of unidentifiable figuration, yet separate from abstraction, is a unique and intriguing characteristic of Eyre’s work.
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Ivan Kenneth Eyre
(1935 - 2022) RCA
Ivan Kenneth Eyre was born in Tullymet, Saskatchewan in 1935. At the Saskatoon Technical Collegiate he studied under Ernest Lindner, followed by studies at the University of Saskatchewan under Eli Bornstein in 1952. At the University of Manitoba School of Art, he studied under several notable teachers graduating in 1957 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In 1958-59 he attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks where he also taught. Upon returning to Canada, he took a teaching job at the University of Manitoba where he was appointed Full Professor (of painting and drawing) and where he stayed until his retirement in 1993. In 1966-67, he travelled in England and Europe where he was able to sell many of his paintings to private collectors. His works were inspired by the Symbolist philosophy of following subjective recollection and reaction rather than the Realist-Impressionist technique of objective observation-based painting. He is very much part of the artistic scene of the Prairies where he has lived most of his life. Eyre is also known for his graphite, crayon studies, and woodcuts. Among his many honours, he was elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1974, received the Queen's Silver Jubilee medal in 1977, the University of Manitoba Alumni Jubilee Award in 1982, and was the subject of several films and books. He has held solo exhibitions from 1962 to the present and participated in many group shows. His works hang in numerous private and public collections in Canada and abroad. Winnipeg is the home to the Pavilion Gallery which houses the largest permanent of Eyre's paintings representing 170 works on canvas and over 5000 drawings. Ivan Eyre lived and worked in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
