Born in Toronto in 1928, Irving Burman was a painter and designer until 1958, when he began his sculptural practice. His most important work, Road Back (1962), is formed of six statues arranged in a semi-circle, expressing a critical reflection on war.
Artwork description
Separated somewhat from the other artworks produced in Mount Royal Park for the symposium, this abstract sculpture is formed of two limestone arcs, the upper one of which has rectangular prisms at its ends. The base consists of a block of raw stone bearing the marks of its extraction.
A sense of restraint, even neutrality, emanates from these shapes, which seem to have been placed in balance. Even with this abstraction, Burman, who expressed an interest in human drama in his artworks, does not block the presence of a sensibility that is manifested, among other things, by the arcs in opposition, testifying to a symbolic conflict between two opposed entities.
According to a model made in 1962, this sculpture was supposed to be made of wood, the artist’s favourite material. When he was preparing for the event, however, Burman decided, for technical reasons, to work in limestone; this was his first artwork made of stone.