Lexington, KY- One of the benefits of hosting a major event is that it can serve as a catalyst for other events and activities. This is certainly true with the upcoming Alltech 2010 World Equestrian Games.
Hoofbeats and Heartbeats: the Horse in American Art
A WEG-inspired satellite just launched at the University of Kentucky Art Museum. Titled , this remarkable new exhibit is a must-see for lovers of both horses and American art and history.
More than 50 paintings and sculptures are on loan from such renowned museums as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the American West, and the Winterthur Museum. These are the works of Frederic Remington, Edward Troye, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, and other outstanding artists.
"It's a chance to get to know some wonderful American artists," said Kathy Walsh-Piper, Director of the Museum.
Knowing that she and her staff wanted to host a horse-related exhibit during WEG, Walsh-Piper turned to a friend at the Smithsonian to find the right curator. That friend recommended Ingrid Cartwright, an Assistant Professor of Art History at Western Kentucky University.
Cartwright, who grew up in Cincinnati, often came to Lexington for horse shows at the Kentucky Horse Park. While earning her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland she worked for a leading equestrian magazine and continued to ride.
Now settled in Bowling Green with her four horses, Cartwright said, "The opportunity to curate this exhibit is an art historian and a horse person's dream come true!"
Cartwright's goal with the exhibit is to show visitors the important role that the horse has played in American history from the Revolutionary period to present day.
The art is arranged around four themes.
"The Horse and the Battlefield" depicts the roles of horses in American wars. "The Horse as a Symbol of Freedom" features horses in historical paintings with themes of liberty and emancipation, and the physical freedom of the American West. "Horse Power" is a meditation on how horses helped build the American nation. "Heartbeats" portrays horses in modern America, used for pleasure in racing and sport.
The exhibit includes a Rembrandt Peale portrait of George Washington astride his horse. Viewers who are knowledgeable about dressage will note that the horse is performing a collected move taught to military horses, similar to dressage.
Schooling the Horses
Edmund Charles Tarbell's (1903) evokes a different mood. Three children who look as though they belong in a Mary Cassatt painting watch the horses being trained.
Study of Lexington
On The Range
Edward Troye's is included, along with many paintings that show the freedom of horses and the American West. , by Carl Rungius (1920) portrays a cowboy lounging on a hillside, his white horse standing relaxed, with dangling reins, as they look over a verdant valley with grazing cattle.
The exhibit is the largest ever undertaken by the UK Art Museum, and cost $300,000 to present. One third of the expenses were underwritten by the Friends of the Museum.
Hoofbeats and Heartbeats
took four years of hard work by all involved to accomplish. At the exhibit's opening Walsh-Piper thanked her staff for individual contributions, such as being on hand at 2:00 a.m. to meet trucks delivering art on loan, and writing hundreds of letters seeking funding.
"Fundraising was the biggest challenge," she said. The usual "major funding agencies didn't think the horse was a major [art] subject. Lexington, Kentucky may be the only place where the horse is truly understood and valued. This show will bring that to life."
Also attending the opening was Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry, who called the UK Art Museum "a special institution for the city of Lexington, a treasure."
Newberry described the new exhibit as "remarkable" and added that it "shows the significant impact of the horse on Lexington's history and culture."
The Bluegrass Palette of Andre Pater
Another splendid exhibit of art, , opened earlier this summer at the UK Art Museum. Because many of Pater's paintings are in private collections it's not likely that they'll be on public display again.
Dog lovers will marvel at Pater's paintings of the foxhounds of Iroquois Hunt Club and other dogs. One painting shows three hounds in repose, cuddling together before a well-deserved nap. To get the lively hounds to pose naturally, Pater and the Master of Hounds took the dogs on a long ramble across the fields to tire them out.
One of Pater's best portraits is of Edward S. (Ned) Bonnie, the Louisville equine attorney. Pater captures Bonnie's tall lean figure perfectly as he sits astride his favorite hunter. The horse shows a wonderful soft eye, unconcerned as six alert foxhounds cavort by his feet, awaiting commands from Bonnie. Each hound's posture and markings are distinct.
Winter Meal
Pater is known for his ability to make his subjects appear lifelike and to handle light well. Both of these traits are evident in , a beautiful scene of a fox who has captured a pheasant and sits on the snow, amid sun-bleached cornstalks. A ruffle of wind has lifted the pheasant's multi-colored wing and caused the fox to turn his head to catch a scent.
Perhaps best-known for his paintings at Keeneland, Pater's portrayals of jockeys show the play of light on the drape and colors of their silks. In one painting the two jockeys wearing silks of King Ranch (deep brown) and Helen Alexander's farm (deep blues) show contrast of color and mood.
To see either of these exhibits is a treat. To see them both is an experience worth remembering. For more information call the UK Art Museum 859-257-5716 or visit http://www.uky.edu/ArtMuseum.