Andy Hope 1930
Courbette Industria

In the central series of the same name, Hope refers to a painting by Gustav Courbet, Durchgehendes Pferd (Bolting Horse) from 1861, which shows a bridled white horse galloping through a forest with an empty saddle and reins tightened as if by magic. The motif, which was quite unusual for its time and which is explained not least by the special history of the painting’s creation—a rider originally sitting on the horse was subsequently painted over by Courbet for reasons that have not been clearly handed down—is both taken up by Hope and concisely altered in several variations.

Hope, whose practice has always combined influences from classical modernism with those from popular culture, especially fantasy and science fiction, transforms the runaway horse into a robot-like species. Instead of the white fur, a metallic surface shimmers. It has six legs that are somewhat reminiscent of the futuristic form language of modernism. The strange scenery could have sprung from a novel by Philip K. Dick; which also applies to the paintings as such.

With Courbette Industria, Andy Hope 1930 adds a new chapter to the exploration of technoid forms of life and corresponding visions of the future that he has already pursued in earlier work cycles.