About the work
Created in 1968, Horse with Festive Elements stands at a pivotal moment in ESPIGA Pinto’s printmaking. The work belongs to the period immediately after his early Alentejo cycle, when motifs drawn from rural memory, popular festivity and the horse began to loosen from narrative setting and take on a more autonomous symbolic role.
Rather than presenting the horse as part of a scene, ESPIGA places it within an arrangement of festive signs. These forms recall the visual culture of Alentejo village celebrations, including sacred and pagan processions, banners and ornamental structures. In this rare silkscreen print, those references are no longer documentary; they become part of the artist’s emerging language of movement, transformation and spatial invention, anticipating the cosmic direction of the 1970s.
Another impression of this work was recently acquired by Mudas. Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Madeira. Following its acquisition, the work was included in an itinerant exhibition (2026) alongside figures such as Júlio Pomar, Menez, Paula Rego, Cruzeiro Seixas and Nikias Skapinakis, within a curatorial context tracing the evolution of Portuguese abstractionism and surrealism in the mid-to-late twentieth century.
As a trial proof, this impression offers a particularly close connection to the development of the image. It marks a moment when ESPIGA Pinto was testing how the signs of the Alentejo could expand beyond their regional origin and enter the broader symbolic field that would define his cosmic period.
Details
Artist: ESPIGA Pinto
Title: Horse with Festive Elements (Cavalo com Elementos Festivos)
Date: 1968
Medium: Silkscreen on paper
Dimensions: 50 x 70 cm
Edition: Ed. Espiga, trial proof
Signed and dated by the artist
Collection note: Other impression is held in Mudas. Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Madeira
Condition
The paper displays minor planar undulation at the lower-right corner and a small spot of blue pigment in the upper margin, above the printed image. These points are confined to the surrounding paper and do not detract from the work’s strong overall presentation.
This preliminary note does not replace a full physical condition report, available upon request.
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FRAME NOT INCLUDED. This artwork is sold unframed. Bespoke framing options and framing advice are available. Please contact us. Any frame, mount or room setting shown in images is for illustrative purposes only. Please check the stated artwork dimensions before ordering.
