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Horse (Mirrored) (Cow Girls: Sheep Boys)
Horse (Mirrored) (Cow Girls: Sheep Boys)

Horse (Mirrored) (Cow Girls: Sheep Boys)

Artist (1941 - 2009)
Date1995
MediumBronze
Dimensions146.7 × 106.7 × 40.6 cm
154.9 × 106.7 × 40.6 cm
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by Barry Flanagan (the Artist), 1996. © The Estate of Barry Flanagan.
Object number1891
DescriptionBest known for his triumphant bronze hares that spring into life, Flanagan's work has attracted attention since his first show in 1966 at the Rowan Gallery, London, while still a student at Central Saint Martins. His first bronze Leaping Hare was cast in 1979, a move from his earlier use of everyday materials such as sand, hessian, felt and light. The change of materials marked a culmination in his questioning of material and sculptural form. Influenced by the written work of Alfred Jarry, notably 'pataphysics' or the science of imaginary solutions, Flanagan fuses the everyday and the fantastical, moulding and gripping the clay to create a form that offers itself to our imagination.

Flanagan use of animals, such as the hares, elephants and horses, as in this work, invests human attributes into the animal world, referencing the conventions of the cartoon. The sketchy quality of his technique transforms the work to appear always in motion and thus subject to change. The horse, archetype of classical sculpture, symbolic of fertility, and in particular man's constant companion, here mirrors itself, male and female.

Flanagan represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1982 and lived and worked in Dublin and London. He died in Ibiza on 31 August 2009.
On View
Not on view
Horses Fighting
John H M Furse
1901
William Cosgrave
Sir John Lavery
1923
Animal and Hunter
Gerda J Frömel
c. 1963
Bust of Barry Flanagan
Suzie Zamit
2013
Bogwater and Bullwire
Terence P Flanagan
c. 1975
Cellomaster
Arman
c. 1961
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Terence P Flanagan
1971
The Family
Peter Behan
before 1968
hole in the sea 3
Barry Flanagan
1967/70
matter of fact
Maud Cotter
2016