More than a moment: Contemporary equine art beyond trend
- Joyce Ter Horst
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Apparently, the universe and I are finally aligned.
Yes, I know it is the Year of the Horse.
Yes, I curate contemporary equine art for a living.
Yes, I was doing that before the zodiac confirmed my career choice.
And yes, I will still be here when it becomes the Year of the Goat.
This year also marks ten years of my curating within equine art.
Not because it was strategic. Because it was chosen.
Some things are seasonal.
Some things are a commitment.
Why this matters for contemporary equine art
The horse did not enter art because of astrology.
It entered because it mattered.
Long before themed campaigns or cultural spotlights, someone stood in a cave and painted a small, compact horse with careful attention. Not as decoration. Not as spectacle. But because it was worth recording.
Artists have returned to the horse for centuries.
Across movements. Across continents. Across contexts.
And not always easily.
For a long time, choosing the horse often required explanation.
'Why horses.'
'Isn’t that sentimental.'
'Isn’t that romantic.'
The subject has carried assumptions, sometimes dismissed as narrow or overly emotional, as if strength and depth could not coexist.
Yet artists kept choosing it.
Not because it was fashionable.
Because it was compelling.
The deeper layer
The horse carries tension within its form.
Power and vulnerability.
Wildness and partnership.
Control and surrender.
Distance and intimacy.
It has moved civilisations and shaped economies. It has stood for empire and labour, sport and companionship, myth and status.
It is both animal and mirror.
That duality is what gives the subject its endurance.
When artists work seriously with the horse, they are not working with surface familiarity. They are entering a lineage. A visual and cultural conversation that stretches back thousands of years.
What feels different now is not the subject, but the atmosphere.
The Year of the Horse has made the image culturally welcome without hesitation.
Reframing the moment
That shift does not diminish the past.
It expands the present.
Artists who once felt they had to justify their subject may now feel the tide turn in their favour.
Artists newly drawn to the horse can enter the field without apology.
The playing field widens.
From a curatorial perspective, that widening is not dilution. It is depth.
More perspectives.
More experimentation.
More contemporary voices.
The calendar will turn again. Cultural focus always moves.
What remains is the subject, and the seriousness with which it is approached.
The horse does not belong to a season.
It has always carried more than a moment.
Read more reflections in Inside Equine Art.
