item details
NameTwo horses
ProductionChrystabel Aitken; artist; circa 1935; Christchurch
Classificationsculpture
Materialsplaster
Materials Summaryplaster
DimensionsOverall: 345 (width), 563 (height), 496 (length)
Registration Number1994-0001-3
Credit linePurchased 1994 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds
Overview
The simplified, angular shapes of these horses exemplify Chrystabel Aitken’s modernist approach to the animal figure.
Aitken was raised on a remote Southland farm, riding her beloved horse into Gore weekly for art lessons. She attended the Canterbury College School of Art with hopes of becoming an animal painter like French artist Rosa Bonheur. However, the limited art curriculum of the 1930s forced Aitken to teach herself animal anatomy.
Aitken mastered many mediums, but she became best known for sculpture carving – then seen as a more masculine technique.