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It was in 1946, as a student of the Slade School of Art, when William Turnbull created his first sculpture of a horse’s head. Comprised of two intersecting planes perpendicularly bisecting each other, Turnbull’s subject is uniquely abstracted while immediately recognizable. His harnessing of the evocative power of ancient sculpture’s formal simplicity and totemic nature is crystallized in his modernist investigation into the possibilities of meaning-construction from this visual typology. Turnbull’s method of creating an image borders on that of the archetype: he distills the essential qualities of a horse into readable forms that capture the animal’s presence. This particular treatment of form would become the leitmotif of Turnbull’s practice, reappearing throughout his career.
"When I make horse’s heads—I have done them pretty well ever since the beginning—it’s always been with this idea of having a metaphoric quality. But also with only part of the horse represented, you didn’t feel the rest of the horse is missing. That has always fascinated me in sculpture where the part can become the whole."
—William TurnbullHeld in the esteemed collection of Robin Quist Gates for over three decades, Horse 2, 1987, marked Turnbull’s return to this visual theme, this time with different terms. The intervening years provided a crucial distance for reflection, experimentation, and development. In reworking the image of the horse, Turnbull reflected, “it is very interesting to see the possibility of enormous variation. It is not necessary to take a new theme, but to transpose something.”i Even so, the attributes that first drew Turnbull to render the animal as his subject remain; the horse’s enduring relation to humanity, its formal similarity to tools such as the adze, and its appearance in antiquity including in the frieze of the Parthenon, all extend the possibilities of creation for Turnbull.
Two smooth panels of polished bronze define Horse 2 in clean lines and curves. The front panel depicting the horse’s face bears two holes which serve as the eyes and allows further psychological entrance to the sculpture. The back panel is essentially an arch, representing the neck and mane of the horse. Its shape, reminiscent of a classical Greek Corinthian helmet, communicates the movement and heroism typically associated with the animal. The carved grooves suggest the mane and teeth of the horse, providing the sculpture with an outwardly weathered and powerful appearance.
An essential frontal dynamism still dominated Turnbull’s practice by 1987, but there is also a sense of stillness present in Horse 2 that introduces a level of contemplative stasis to this work. The closed arch of the head grounds Horse 2, offering a solid steadiness that balances the delicateness of the sculpture—a stunning reprisal of Turnball’s eternal subject.
i William Turnbull, quoted in Amanda A. Davidson, The Sculpture of William Turnbull, Perry Green, 2005, p. 71.來源
舊金山 John Berggruen 畫廊
加州 ROBIN QUIST GATES 珍藏系列（1990年購自上述來源）
現藏者由上述藏家繼承作品過往展覽
London, Waddington Galleries, William Turnbull: Sculptures 1946–62, 1985–87, October 28–November 21, 1987, no. 31, pp. 74, 87 (another example illustrated, p. 75)
文學
Amanda A. Davidson, The Sculpture of William Turnbull, Perry Green, 2005, no. 353, p. 172 (another example illustrated)
ROBIN QUIST GATES 珍藏系列
191
《馬 2》
款識：藝術家花押字、2/6 87（鬃毛背）
綠色銅雕 黑色大理石底座
31 x 32 1/4 x 12 5/8 英吋 (78.7 x 81.9 x 32.1 公分)
1987年作，共有6版，此作為第2版。
估價
$200,000 - 300,000
成交價$365,400
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