ADAM'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 25 MARCH 2026

60 43 BASIL BLACKSHAW (1932-2016) Two Horses Exercising, ( c. 1973) Oil on canvas, 51 x 61cm (20 x 24’’) Signed Literature: Brian Ferran, Basil Blackshaw - Painter , illus. p.36, plate 23 € 30,000 - 50,000 In Two Horses Exercising , Basil Blackshaw distils the equine subject to its most essential rhythms of mass and motion. Painted c. 1973, at a moment when the artist was refining his mature visual language, the work exemplifies his singular ability to balance figuration and abstraction. The horses emerge from a muted, atmospheric ground in a palette of greys, chalky whites and subdued earth tones, their forms at once solid and dissolving. Blackshaw, who grew up in rural County Down and maintained a lifelong engagement with the horse as motif, approached the animal not as picturesque ornament but as a living structure of energy and temperament. Here, the two horses advance side by side, their heads slightly bowed, their bodies articulated through swift, searching brushwork. Dark linear accents, suggesting harness or shadow, cut across the pale flanks, anchoring the composition while reinforcing the cadence of for- ward movement. The surface is worked and reworked, with scumbled passages and scraped paint creating a palpable sense of depth. The background is neither landscape nor interior, but an ambiguous field against which the animals seem to materialise and recede. This spatial indeterminacy heightens the painting’s psychological charge: the horses are not simply observed; they are felt. Blackshaw’s handling in this period reflects his admiration for European modernism while remaining deeply rooted in the rural life of Northern Ireland. The restrained tonality and economy of means lend the picture a meditative quality, allowing gesture and structure to carry expressive weight. As in many of his equine works, the emphasis is less on anatomical preci- sion than on presence, an evocation of strength, vulnerability and quiet endurance. Two Horses Exercising stands as a compelling example of Blackshaw’s ability to transform a familiar rural subject into a pro- found exploration of movement and memory, rendered with an immediacy that remains unmistakably his own.