Ghost Horse 2000

Curator: Nelson Shanks painted this stunning scene, titled "Ghost Horse," in 2000. It’s an oil on canvas, bringing together landscape and figuration in a really compelling way. Editor: "Ghost Horse" indeed! It evokes this melancholic beauty, like a dream half-remembered. That stark white animal set against the dusky, muted colors... It feels like a whisper of a myth. Curator: There’s an interesting dialogue here between romanticism and realism, right? Shanks grounds us in the specific—the scrubby vegetation, the precise anatomy of the horse—but there’s also an undeniable ethereal quality. How does that speak to the physical craft, I wonder? The materials are put to work making this dreamscape believable. Editor: Believable? Or believably made? Looking at the surface, I see clear gestures with the brush that imply rather than reproduce exactly; particularly where the sea meets the shore and with that creature’s musculature. The question is whether he labored—or who did—to bring those material conditions to life to communicate, precisely, this otherworldly subject. I mean, even oil paints are industrially made these days... Curator: You raise a point there. Labor certainly shaped those outcomes, but that brings to mind what’s represented versus how—how the artist wants us to feel looking at it, and to linger on this moment where the spirit world seems close. To make manifest the ephemeral… to find the ‘real’ horse inside the ghostly outline, do you see? Editor: Hmmm, sure... I see how the contrast creates this… spectral impression, and that does lend an air of emotional mystery. Yet I can’t get away from that beautiful and efficiently employed handling of materials. And the location...it’s a beautiful but a built-upon place. Who’s allowed there and what’s it used for? Curator: Those colors, though – that delicate gradient in the sky... It almost hums, doesn’t it? Like the memory of a place or the anticipation of a significant, deeply personal event. That one horse... it really pulls you in. It is hard not to meditate on an arrival to awareness. Editor: Alright, I give you that one – those pastel washes give the entire scene a soft and timeless air. The craft and beauty do strike at the material that drives a fantasy, I’ll admit! Curator: Exactly! Editor: Well, Shanks sure made us think a little harder today.