Sculptures of Ivan Eyre
McMichael’s art collections in Kleinburg hosts a sculpture garden – grand-scale black shiny statues against green screen of leafs and intermingled nature paths. Surprising, stunning, Egyptian, modern, indigenous – hard to find a footing in this encounter. A little out of place, yet primal as the nature surrounding them.
Admittedly, little we knew about their creator, Ivan Eyre (1935- 2022). Took a bit of research of Canadian art legacy to connect with the famed Manitoba artist. Known mostly for his prairie landscapes and surrealist paintings. Where did these sculptures come from? North, night, past?
Ivan Eyre was known as a rebel and a ‘visual philosopher’ – against dogmas of art movements, against the molds artists are forced to conform to in order to perpetuate their ‘style’ for galleries and collectors. Ivan Eyre, different and individualistic, followed his path from formal landscapes to surrealist scenes to massive sculptures to build an incredible legacy.
Ivan Eyre, I don’t know yet whether I quite like your magnificent sculptures… yet I know that art embodies individualism – and always wins when it escapes jails of predictability and conformity.
Left Brain Artists 