Red Wing 1980

Ivan Eyre's "Red Wing" presents us with a landscape where nature and artifice intertwine, rendered in oil on canvas. Dominating the foreground is a curious, thorned element, like a grotesque parody of vegetal life, which immediately brings to mind the vanitas tradition where thorns symbolize pain, the ephemerality of earthly pleasures, and the inevitability of decay. This motif of the thorned entity can be traced through art history—from the crown of thorns in Christian iconography, representing suffering and sacrifice, to the surrealist landscapes of Max Ernst, where such forms evoke a sense of unease and alienation. It's almost as if the artist has unearthed a primal fear embedded in our collective unconscious, that surfaces here as a crude parody of growth. The juxtaposition of this with the serene, almost idyllic landscape beyond creates a tension—a symbolic wrestling match between life and death, beauty and decay, that resonates deeply within the viewer. This emotional friction underscores the power of symbols to evoke complex, often subconscious responses. The thorn, therefore, is not merely a plant but a potent carrier of cultural memory.