The Rider Who Bit Off the Horse‘s Head

The Rider Who Bit Off the Horse's Head is one of the earlier works by painter Vilmantas Marcinkevičius. Looking at the painting from a distance, it is easy to discern the form of a standing human figure holding a horse's head in his hands. Blood drips in thick layers of paint, while in the distance a blue sky beckons, as if mocking the entire scene. It would not be surprising if you flinched upon viewing this imagery.

A horse is a noble and beautiful animal – a rider's most faithful friend. It is impossible to bite off a horse's head. Therefore let us look at this as a metaphor for great change, a refusal of one’s current situation, and a step along unknown and new paths.

This surreal painting is akin to an allegory for a young person's emotional condition. Although the work was created in 1994, the situation it depicts is undefined by time or place – it remains current even today. Let us imagine a young person, not necessarily the painter. He has completed his studies and his future is uncertain. His energy is pouring out of him, but of what use is it? In which direction should he go, and guided by what purpose? Anxiety and uncertainty have poured themselves out energetically on a large canvas.

The grotesque as a balance between the beautiful and the hideous, the humorous and the horrible, is characteristic of early paintings by Vilmantas. The elastic expression and mood of The Rider Who Bit Off the Horse's Head is similar to another work in his collection from the same period, The Soldier and the Peasant Woman.

Later works by Marcinkevičius will move away from the style of the traditional Lithuanian expressionist school. His paintings begin to take on more decorative characteristics, and his brush work become more tranquil and controlled by linear drawing. They retain, however, a propensity to tell stories and provoke the viewer, inverting the meanings of their themes from the view of the observer. Just as an act of violence in this painting becomes a metaphor for anxiety, so later do angels become suspicious alpha men, and open erotica tells the story of attachment and love. Many of these stories hide autobiographical details. This is characteristic of the work of late twentieth century German neoexpressionists, who had a significant influence upon Marcinkevičius' painting.