"Horse & Rider"
Bronze (On Marble Base)
Height 57cm Width 34cm
Signed to Foot HF
Edition: 6/10
Prov: Gift from the artist.
Private Collection Adelaide
$9,000-12,000
Although celebrated for the monumental public sculptures that transformed Australia’s urban landscape, including Adelaide’s iconic The Spheres (“Mall’s Balls”), Cones at the National Gallery of Australia and Sydney’s Pyramid Tower (Dobell Memorial) the later years of Herbert Flugelman’s career were devoted to a series of intimate bronze maquettes inspired by horses, acrobats and human relationships. Working on a more personal scale, these sculptures reveal the same mastery of balance and form that distinguished his celebrated public commissions.
Depicting two lovers seated upon a horse, the present work belongs to this lyrical body of sculptures. Influenced in part by the playful movement and elegant line of Alexander Calder’s circus imagery, Flugelman reduced the figures to their essential forms, creating a composition of remarkable harmony and tenderness. Despite its modest scale, the sculpture possesses a quiet monumentality, capturing themes of companionship, balance and affection through the artist’s characteristically confident and economical use of form.
