Expressionistic Horses

ARTH-3825-1


Expressionistic Horses
    Horses are arguably the nonhuman animal most representative of Abstract  Expressionism.  Around 55,000,000 years older (although they looked more like capybaras at the time) than the human species, horses have witnessed the entirety of the development of civilization, and protected humans whether it be a steed in battle or a mount for hunting.  Being that horses are a building block of the world as known, it’s no surprise that some of the earliest known works of art are of horses, who have been present in pieces ever since, serving as a benchmark of the advances in society and culture.  In addition, this animal is not just a measurement of the growth of art over time, specifically within the movement of Abstract Expressionism, but an embodiment of the movement themselves in terms of defining characteristics and ideas, especially the aspects of monumental scale, the sense of a sublime, proof of existence through energetic mark-making, and being a mirror to the human condition.
    Horses are common subjects of the artists of the Abstract Expressionist movement during their pre-Abstract Expressionist eras, unsurprising as they are tightly integrated into  human culture, but also because many Abstract Expressionists had roots in American Regionalism.   These painters commonly rendered images of  the difficulties of rural life which, unsurprisingly often featured indispensable workhorses and cowboys.  Future Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still were no exceptions.  
        For example, Mark Rothko’s 1938 watercolor, “Horses and Mountains,” isn’t immediately recognizable as a Rothko, due to the realistically rendered organic subject matter.  However in hindsight, the viewer can still pick out the present qualities of a classic  Rothko color field painting, with the soft pulsating blocks of color and flattened pictorial space, similar to his 1948 painting, “Multiform.”  
“Horses and Mountains” appears flat in composition due to the lack of perspective applied to the environment, and the motion and energy of the horses combined with the picturesque mountains yield the classic Rothko buzzing sublime feeling.  The essence of the  abstract expressionist movement was always present, especially observed in nature, it was just unharnessed previously.
    Furthermore, this sense of wild, untamed energy relates back to not only the meaning of the paintings, but some of the inspirations behind them. In their earlier artistic years, abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock  often drew from, perhaps unrightfully so, other cultures.  Pollock was specifically exposed to Native American influences and images growing up.  To the Native Americans,  the horse was seen as a blessed symbol of energy (paralleling to Pollock’s future action paintings), healing (paralleling to Pollock’s stint in therapeutic drawing), beauty, strength, an axis mundi to the spiritual world, and a “brother in spirit.”  As such, the Native Americans were already using the horse as an embodiment of Abstract Expressionism, ready for Jackson Pollock to absorb (or subconsciously steal) and combine with his passion for abstract art, inspired by Pablo Picasso’s cubism in particular. 
    For example, in regards to Pollock’s 1944 painting “Horse,” Christie’s states, “The bold, visually striking painting displays the influences of European masters such as Mir and Picasso as well as Pollock's early interest in symbols and mythologies in relation to nature. … “Furthermore, Pollock's method of mark-making by scratching into the paint rather than adding to it references a sort of primitivism and universality that is often associated with nature. The horse is transformed into a mythical creature-poised, timeless and wise.  Though Pollock remains fairly representational in Horse, his interest in abstraction is clearly visible in his use of non-local colors, universal symbols such as the crescent moon, and innovative mark-making. In just a few years, Pollock would create his signature drip paintings, a development that drastically altered the course of art history. In that way, Horse predicts the artist's dramatic transformation and provides a clear understanding of the artist's artistic origins and influences.”  This is similar to Rothko’s equine-related foreshadowing mentioned previously, in that the image of the horse is a representation of the artists’ past, present, and future.
    One of the most distinguishable qualities of Abstract Expressionist art is the  emphasis on organic, humanistic, expressive mark-making, otherwise known as Action Painting. This characteristic reflects movement, power, energy, and proof of existence at a point in time, relating back to the Native American association with the revered horse; where they might argue no other creature displays a higher level of such qualities. For example, in his book, “Jackson Pollock: Psychoanalytic Drawings,” art historian Claude Cernuschi writes in regards to Pollock’s animal motifs that, “the horse and bull act out a tense symbolic relationship between the active and the passive, the weak and the strong, the aggressor and the victim.”  This motif of internal turmoil and metaphor of the strong yet frantic prey animals connects to Pollock’s difficult life and exaggerates the feeling of power, energy, and movement, as seen especially in his untitled therapy drawing from 1940, featuring abstracted horse heads and an image of two intertwined, agitated horse tails.  In essence, Pollock captures the ideas of Action Painting through imagery before he even masters the act itself.
    Another two characteristic elements of Abstract Expressionist art are monumental scale and the experience of the sublime.  Much like watching a band of wild horses galloping, Abstract Expressionist art aims to make the viewer feel simultaneously vulnerable and in awe of the universe.  As Rothko and  Gottlieb wrote to the New York Times in 1943, “We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat  forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.” Here, the two painters assert their idea that monumental scale and simplified, careful compositions can manually create the feeling of the natural sublime in a viewer.
    This concept also relates to the 2023 Clyfford Still exhibit, Awful Bigness.  The museum states, “Clyfford Still spent his childhood and adolescence in the West and saw how the boundless plains could offer  generous bounty in times of plenty or pitilessly starve in dust and wind. In an interview, he referred to that experience as one that taught him to respect the “awful bigness of the land, the men and the machines.” In subsequent years, he worked on an enormous scale, and each time, he had to confront the awful bigness of the vast expanse of blank canvas.”  Here, Still’s experience and work with the sublime is synthesized, and connects back to the earlier Native American concept of the large, powerful horse in nature compared to the comparatively helpless and insignificant human. 
    In conclusion, not only does the equine species serve as a measurement and benchmark for art throughout different time periods and movements, but also a strong representation of the defining characteristics and influences of the Abstract Expressionist movement itself.  Whether it’s in terms of Action Painting, scale, the sense of the sublime, or more, horses are a perfect representation.  While this seems counterintuitive due to the fact that the Abstract Expressionist movement was meant to capture the essence of the human condition, those who truly know horses realize them to be mirrors to the soul, and one can’t truly know themselves without them.




Works Consulted  

“Adolph Gottlieb Explores Space, Form, and Color in Three Dimensions.” U, www.umma.umich.edu/archive/news/stories/Gottlieb.html. Accessed 22 May 2023. 
Artnet.Com, www.artnet.com/artists/jackson-pollock/composition-with-horse-at-center-ZulcpcAt2NP7NQ30YkEUpQ2. Accessed 22 May 2023. 
Artnet.Com, www.artnet.com/artists/willem-de-kooning/horse-head-2DVd2NYmowmx5XfL1aPKFA2. Accessed 22 May 2023. 
“Awful Bigness.” Clyfford Still Museum, 17 Mar. 2023, clyffordstillmuseum.org/exhibitions/awful-bigness/. 
Cernuschi, Claude. Jackson Pollock: The Psychoanalytic Drawings. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1992.
Clyfford Still. “Still and the West II.” Clyfford Still Museum, 23 Apr. 2023, clyffordstillmuseum.org/blog/still-and-the-west-ii/. 
“Horse.” Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5372015. Accessed 22 May 2023. “Jackson Pollock, Untitled , c. 1939-40.” Mark Borghi, www.markborghi.com/artists/73-jackson-pollock/works/9554-jackson-pollock-untitled-c.-1939-40/. Accessed 22 May 2023. 
“Jackson Pollock: Landscape with White Horse: American Art: 2020.” Sotheby’s, www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/american-art/jackson-pollock-landscape-with-white-horse. Accessed 22 May 2023. 
Rothko, Mark. “Multiform, 1948 - Mark Rothko.” Www.Wikiart.Org, 1 Jan. 1970, www.wikiart.org/en/mark-rothko/multiform-1948. 
Sevela.p. “Painting of a Horse, Lascaux Cave.” World History Encyclopedia, 20 May 2023, www.worldhistory.org/image/5589/painting-of-a-horse-lascaux-cave/. 
“Spiritual Bonds: A Song for the Horse Nation - October 29, 2011 through January 7, 2013 - The National Museum of the American Indian - Washington, D.C.” National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian Institution., americanindian.si.edu/exhibitions/horsenation/bonds.html#:~:text=Plains%20tribes%20embraced%20the%20horse,objects%20represent%20this%20spiritual%20connection. Accessed 22 May 2023. 
“The Wooden Horse: Number 10 a.” – All Artworks – Moderna Museet, sis.modernamuseet.se/objects/841/the-wooden-horse-number-10-a. Accessed 22 May 2023. 
“[Horses and Mountains].” Rothko Catalogue Raisonné, rothko.nga.gov/Detail/objects/4052. Accessed 22 May 2023.