white horse 2020

Curator: This drawing by Martine Johanna, created in 2020, is titled “white horse.” It’s a portrait executed in pencil, part of her broader exploration of figuration. Editor: There’s something immediately striking about the gentleness radiating from this image. The embrace feels both protective and melancholic. The detail is astounding – so many shades achieved with just a pencil! Curator: The image holds echoes of classical portraiture, perhaps even Renaissance devotional paintings, in its composition and use of symbolism. White horses have carried shifting significance over the centuries. Do you perceive that layering? Editor: Absolutely. The whiteness evokes purity, of course, but also something ghostly, ephemeral. Consider its social moment. Created in 2020, at the pandemic’s outset, it's a vulnerable symbol of solace. But who does she, the protagonist, mourn here, perhaps past, childhood, or safety itself? Curator: The horse itself seems to be a rocking horse, suggesting a memory or longing for innocence. Perhaps the floral elements elaborate this idea of an idealized, almost mythical, past, filtered through an intensely personal lens. Editor: Right, and rocking horses have histories intertwined with privilege. So there's also something intriguing about the fact that this woman protects such a clearly artificial stand-in. There’s a fascinating tension between the authentic emotion and the manufactured object. It almost undermines a romanticized past! Curator: This deliberate juxtaposition creates that tension you’re describing, it almost forces us to acknowledge our complex, ambivalent relationship with memory. Is there an active critique there as much as an idealized memory? Editor: Potentially. I am also intrigued how contemporary portraits operate, the drawing reminds the viewer about who owns the symbol or even a sense of reality as mediated image in popular culture. It’s like the artist encourages a discourse about what is "real" within society through the artistic practice. Curator: The beauty of Johanna's piece is it presents those sorts of open questions around both collective visual memory and individual longing, making a simple image conceptually profound. Editor: Exactly. A lovely piece and a wonderful springboard into broader thinking on image consumption and reality itself!