Dragon Head 1969

Ivan Eyre painted this large square artwork, Dragon Head, with many colours, layers, and lines. I love the flat colours here and wonder how they came into being, emerging through trial, error, and intuition. You can see so many strange objects emerging out of the fog like a dream. The artist’s hand seems to be resting in front of the dragon’s head and you see the way the lines describe the fingers holding tools, but they are not very clear. I can see a hint of Philip Guston here and wonder what it felt like for Eyre to be making this? Artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.