Cathy's Art Diary

Clever online lecture from the National Gallery looking at horses in art. Chiedza Mhondoro, assistant curator at Tate Britain, discussed the idea that how horses are shown in art reflects our relationship with them and the different roles they play. The talk was a little repetitive to begin with as she laid out those roles but came together when she returned to them with examples of three or four works of art and examples of each. It might have been better to combine the discussion of the roles and the examples from the start for clarity. The roles she covered ranged from agricultural use, transport, role in conflict, mythology, literature, recreation and sport and their place in the human imagination. She used a good range of examples from Stubbs to contemporary art.  

Engaging exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on a portrait of a horse called Scrub by George Stubbs which has been borrowed from a private collection. The wonderful portrait strikes you as you enter the room and you can't help but smile. The level of detail is extraordinary and it feels like he is inviting you to sit down and spend time with him. He was commissioned by the same patron as the famous Whistlejacket who dominates one of the main vistas of the gallery and I like to think that at night they meet up somewhere and catch up on old times. Shown with the portrait are two horse projects by Stubbs , an book on the anatomy of the horse based on dissections which he did and drew at every stage, and a commission to paint all the major racing horses of the previous 50 years. There were two works from the series in the show and you couldn’t help but smile again at Dungannon with his friend, a lamb. Of course I had to go and say hello to Whistlejacket afterwards so he ...

Slightly disjointed exhibition at the British Museum tracing the horse from its earliest origins to the race horses of today. Each bit of the exhibition was very good but I wasn’t sure the bits fitted together.  I would have preferred three exhibitions the horse in the classical world, the horse in Islam and the growth of the modern race horse.  I liked the last section best on race horses in particular the work of Blunts who were the first English people to collect Arabian horse and started a stud in England. I loved the illustrations of  their travels. I was also fascinated to see the development from UK race horse from just three foundation stud horses. A friend had described this to me a while ago at Goodwood races so it was nice to find out more and relive happy memories.