(Horse Portrait)
A.B.G.
Found 07/2015, Salvation Army (183 and Peyton Gin)

Amiable and cartoonish, (Horse Portrait) is among the friendlier and more approachable pieces in the Equus collection, which overall tends toward the wild, iconic, or aloof. (Horse Portrait) smiles warmly, with a slight arch to the eyebrow that seems almost to suggest a smirk. A.B.G.’s horse has a sense of humor. Because of its strong black linework, lively tendrils of its mane, and its classical gold frame, (Horse Portrait) seems to partake of classical Greek black-figure pottery, or perhaps a classic portrait miniature (also suggested by its circular design). Yet those classical antecedents are often cold and expressionless, even when their subjects are in love or at war. This wry creature, the painted form of an epigram, is refreshingly open, even as it alludes to its classical heritage.