Michael Zavros: Horses, centaurs & the mystique of the cowboy

Fri 11 Aug 2023

Michael Zavros was an Australian national showjumper as a teenager, so thoroughbreads are in his blood. During the Royal Queensland Show — which locals have affectionately shortened the name to ‘Ekka’ — we look at a range of works that delve into the artist’s interest in horses, including centaurs and the mystique of the cowboy.

Royal Queensland Show

Horses have been competing at Brisbane’s Royal Queensland Show (Ekka) since the very first show in 1876. Today, more than 15 breeds of horses from the majestic clydesdales, the thoroughbred and standardbred, to small shetland ponies will be showcased this year. A highlight every year of the horse competitions is the breathtaking showjumping. If you’re going to the Ekka and are seduced by the charm of the horse, don’t miss the works on display in ‘Michael Zavros: The Favourite’.

A good horse

On display at GOMA is a selection of Zavros’s dramatic equestrian paintings, drawings and sculptures (illustrated), which show the power and vulnerability of thoroughbreds.

‘When I was younger, I was heavily involved in equestrian sports . . . Horses have emerged as highly personal subject matter for me, emblematic of a deep personal melancholy . . . I think of them as monumental motifs for sadness.’ Michael Zavros

Trophy 2010

The waiting one 2006

Falling August 2006

‘The power and energy of this jumping horse has been literally turned on its head . . . In equestrian sports the horse’s bravery or willingness is emphasised . . . a good horse will often go against its natural instincts and quite literally leap into the unknown, often to its peril.’ Michael Zavros

The Centaur

Zavros’s striking monochromatic paintings Burberry Prorsum/Bay 2006 and Tom Ford/Black 2011 (illustrated) quite literally combine the artist’s interests in fashion and saddle horses. The images were constructed by collaging source material to create postures that showed a certain strength or tension. The collages were then painted at scale. A meaningful parallel exists between the distinct sources in their pronounced adherence to aesthetic standards and codes. Notably, these works are also among the first to evoke ancient Greek mythology through the part human part horse creature known as a centaur.

Burberry Prorsum/Bay 2006

Tom Ford/Black 2011

Palomino 2021

The cowboy

The ‘Prince/Zavros’ series 2012–13 includes a re-creation of the iconic Marlboro Man advertisements (illustrated) famously rephotographed by American artist Richard Prince in the late 1980s. Zavros reproduced by hand Prince’s own photographic appropriations of Marlboro advertisements.

‘The Marlboro images articulate a different kind of utopia, a different kind of exotic. Especially to an Australian or anyone in an urban context. Despite my childhood obsession with Australian mythology — The Man from Snowy River, mustering on school holidays in my R.M. Williams and my Drizabone, registering my horses with The Australian Stock Horse Society, attending the meetings and events — what I really wanted to be was a cowboy, not a stockman. I think it’s a typical Australian story, one where a figure borne of another culture could be so deeply embedded in our national character and psyche.’ Michael Zavros

Prince/Zavros 5 2012

Prince/Zavros 6 2012

Prince/Zavros 9 2012

The 208-page exhibition publication Michael Zavros: The Favourite is available at QAGOMA Stores or online.

‘Michael Zavros: The Favourite‘ in 1.1 (The Fairfax Gallery) and 1.2 at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane from 24 June to 2 October 2023 surveys 25 years of painting, sculpture, photography and video by leading contemporary Queensland artist Michael Zavros. This exhibition offered opportunities for dialogue with ‘eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness’ presented in the adjacent gallery 1.2 and 1.3 (Eric and Marion Taylor Gallery).