ARTIST PROFILE
Equine Form A Fascination With The
Artist Nic Fiddian-Green’s 30-year obsession with the shape of a horse’s head has led him to personal fulfillment and commercial success—and he’s still captivated by the work. By LISA SLADE
Photos by R ICHAR D FOSTER
W
hen Nic Fiddianoccupied my consciousness, I suppose.” Green was attending Now Fiddian-Green, 53, is a housea course at the Chelhold name in the art world. Or, at the sea College of Arts in very least, if you don’t know his name, London, professors at the school sent you’ve likely seen his sculptures, which the students to the British Museum for range from the miniscule to the masa day with a simple instruction: Find sive. One of the best known, Still Water, something that inspires you. stands 33' tall and rests in London’s As Fiddian-Green wandered the halls, Marble Arch. There’s a Fiddian-Green a Greek marble carving caught his eye. It sculpture at the Ascot Racecourse, and was a statue of a horse’s head—the horse of another that stood at Goodwood Racegoddess Selene—from the east pediment course for several years. Still others are of the Parthenon, with an estimated origin scattered across England, the United of 438 to 432 B.C. The horse’s ears are flatStates, Australia, Russia, Hong Kong tened backwards; the mouth is open, nosand the Middle East. trils flared and his eyes bulge. He doesn’t “You’re only as good as your last work, really. It’s an “I’m just sort of traveling with it ongoing journey,” said artist Nic Fiddian-Green. exactly look welcoming by any modern and seeing what it means,” said Fidhorseman’s standards. But, pinned ears dian-Green. “People do seem to conand all, the artwork drew in Fiddian-Green immediately. nect with the form, even though they don’t have any relationship That one horse’s head set the young artist, who’d been primarwith it. Collectors will buy it, but they don’t need to be regarded ily focused on drawing up until that point, on an entirely new track. as horse people.” “It kind of obsessed me—caught my attention,” said FiddianIn contrast to Selene’s horse, Fiddian-Green’s sculptures possess Green. “From then on, I worked on various images and transcripsoft eyes and half-mast ears. They’re often depicted with the nose tions from it, over and over again, for years. For 30 years, it’s sort of facing down, so that the horse appears to be drinking. Across the 88 MARCH /APRIL 2017
U N TAC K E D
