Runaway Horses 1941

Cyprián Majerník made this painting, Runaway Horses, using oil paint on canvas, and you can almost feel the brushstrokes swirling with the energy of the animals. I can imagine Majerník, mixing browns and ochres, maybe a little blue, trying to capture that fleeting sense of movement. There's something about the way the paint is applied, thick in some places, thin in others, that gives the painting a real sense of urgency. You can see it in the way the horses are rendered, not perfectly, but with a raw, almost frantic energy. I wonder if he felt like he was chasing something, trying to pin down a feeling, a memory? The loose brushwork reminds me of other painters like Delacroix, who were also fascinated by horses, but Majerník brings a modern sensibility, a kind of anxious, searching quality to the subject. Painting is a way of embodying experience, making a gesture toward something just beyond our grasp.