The tianma FDSWXUHGWKH&KLQHVHLPDJLQDWLRQDQGWKH¿UVWEURQ]HV cast during the Han were copied endlessly and celebrated in verse and painting by Li Bai, Du Fu, Dong Qichang, Han Gan, and later modern masters such as Xu Beihong. Even foreign painters sensed the importance of the horse and horses became the subject of paintings by the Jesuit painter Guiseppe Castliglione as he attempted to court the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors. Many mythological kings, such as the King of Yao and Shun, are said to have ridden chariots pulled by celestial horses to visit various divinities including the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu), who ruled over mortals from her domain in the Kunlun mountains. The significance and importance of the &KLQHVHKRUVHLVVXFKWKDWHYHQWKH;L DQWRPERIWKH¿UVWHPSHURU of China, Qin Shihuangdi, is flanked by two chariots pulled by half a dozen celestial horses. Gao Xiang’s horses are never entirely real. They are often green, a jade or leafy green or terracotta red, the burnt earth red of Yunnan, where the artist was born, the deep red of the blood-like sweat of the Ferghana horses, whose strange sweat was said to be due to an insect burrowing into the skin. They are passionate colors, living colors, more real than real because they produce a certain emotion. They remind me of a poem, by one of my favorite poets E.E. Cummings, an American sensualist and sensitive soul. He wrote: “All in green went my love riding on a great horse of gold into the silver dawn.” Colors for Gao Xiang are about feelings. His work is about feelings. Ink and oil for Gao Xiang are like mirror images of one another. He uses his oil brush lightly, like an ink brush, never too much pressure, always just the right amount of color, a fleeting moment between the brush and the canvas. His oils are like inks. Gao Xiang is a sensualist. He loves nature, he loves the universe. His male and female figures are tiny, overwhelmed by the immensity and the promise of the universe. They are in awe of the world.
It is the same for the horse. One feels that man and horse share a strange complicity. They too are one. They understand one another. Man whispers into nature’s ear as nature whispers into man’s ear. There exists a harmony, a secret harmony of living beings in the universe. Gao Xiang’s towers or pagodas of horses reaching into the heavens are extraordinary. They remind me of the huabiao at the Forbidden City, the shendaozhuor spirit columns, the traditional stone columns (not unlike totems) which represent the union between man and the heavens. This is the quintessential Jacob’s ladder. Gao Xiang loves horses. Of course, the horse itself is a very Chinese symbol. There is even a link to the silk culture. One legend tells of a girl who misses her father, who has been conscripted into the imperial army. She promises to marry the family horse if her father returns. Her father comes home and is horrified to hear that she is promised to the horse. He kills the steed. But the girl’s promise was a magical one and the girl is carried off by the horse’s hide. When her father sets out to VHDUFKIRUKHUKH¿QGVWKHJLUOLQWKHKRUVHKLGHWUDQVIRUPHGLQWR a silkworm inside a cocoon, weaving the most wonderful silk thread. Hence, the goddess of sericulture is horse-headed: Cai Nu or Matou Niangniang. The white dragon horse, Bailongma, is said to have brought the mystical Buddhist scriptures of the travelling monk Xuanzang to China. The heavenly horses, tianma , were the horses supposedly ridden and used by the Han dynasty emperor, Han Wudi. The emperor, a great warrior and leader, discovered the Ferghana stallion (from modern day Uzbekistan) known for its stamina and for its sweat, which resembled blood. When the Ferghana horse breeders refused to sell him the horses, he led an expedition in 104 BC to capture thousands of steeds, the mount of choice to fight the marauding Xiongnu tribes.
The tianma were so swift, they were rumored to be winged horses, heavenly scions in league with the constellations.
Gao Xiang’s way of seeing is undeniably Chinese. His soft touch
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