"Horse" by Raymond Duchamp

 When I went to The Art Institute for the first time, I saw this piece and immediately knew it was a horse. To me it was obvious, but I grew to learn that for most people it is not particularly obvious. It takes other people longer to see the distinguishing characteristics of the mane, the muzzle, and the hoof. Once you can see those main parts, the horse begins to take shape, and it is easier to understand. This sculpture is from the Futurist art movement. Futurism first appeared during 1909, and is mainly an Italian movement, though Duchamp is French. It stems from Cubism. Its main purpose was to praise modern technologies and look toward the optimistic future. Futurists emphasize the machine, and the power it holds. Horses are common imagery in Futurist work because horses represent power and the new human ability to harness power. In Horse, the horse has a very mechanical body. This body connects horsepower to mechanical power. The horse propels forward as a nod to the the Futurists obsession with the future. This sculpture is all about showing movement in space. Duchamp spoke of his work, "The power of the machine imposes itself upon us and we can scarcely conceive living bodies without it." Duchamp is saying that it is hard to imagine living things without machine like qualities, so it emphasizes why he made the horse look machine like. I have recently become more interested in Futurism. I have always loved this sculpture and never knew, until recently, the art movement associated with it. I have been looking at other Futurist works, and I am fascinated by all of them.
As a side note, Raymond Duchamp is the brother of the more well known artist, Marcel Duchamp (who never liked to be associated with an art movement).