Prancing Horse, 1929

In 1929, Herbert Boeckl (1894–1966) began working on a sculpture titled Prancing Horse. The painter used his fingers to form small beads of plasticine, which he stuck on a metal frame. He thus employed a technique that had also been used – albeit with clay – by Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) and later Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966). The agitated, turbulent surface of the bronze can be compared to the pastose paint application in his paintings. The way the artist used brushes or palette knives and sometimes even pressed the paint out of the tube directly onto the canvas is paralleled in Prancing Horse.

Text Leopold Museum