(The Horses of Herd Rock II: Horses of Mt. Fuji)
MW
Found 07/2015, Goodwill (Metric and 183)

MW’s “Herd Rock” cycle is timeless, and indeed, placeless. Little or no documentation on the full extent of MW’s “tiny horse” work has been found. To date, the Museum has only located three paintings, yet the rapid transition from dawn to sullen and fiery sunset implies a second painting, depicting the fullness of day. As yet, such a work remains undiscovered. Such a find would be the holy grail of the tiny horse thrift art academic community.

Perhaps erroneously, and if so unapologetically, we have long seen this piece as alluding to Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, Katsushika Hokusai’s well-known woodblock print series. It is certainly possible, as horses were introduced to the island of Japan as early as the 5th century, though we will allow that it is a bit of a stretch.

A recurring theme of MW’s “tiny horse” series is the constant and iterative appearance of tinier horses. However, the Museum discourages the practice of searching through (Fuji) with a hand glass in a search for the tiniest horse, as it smudges the painting, and we ended that particular contest last November (and congratulations to Victoria Sanders!). Thank you.