During December 1978, Ruth Maddison and her partner Bob Daly spent three weeks at his parents’ house at Mermaid Beach, on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Maddison documented their holiday and the resulting series Christmas holiday with Bob’s family, Queensland (illustrated) formed her first solo exhibition. From a Russian–Jewish background, Maddison grew up in an extended family, which she says explains her obsessive exploration of Australian popular culture. The artist was one of the foremost exponents of hand-coloured photographs in Australia in the 1970s and early ’80s. This series exemplifies a consciously intimate approach to documentary photography that emerged around this time.

The horse has been a integral part of human history for millennia, prized both for their agility, speed and endurance, or strength needed to pull a plow or a carriage full of people. However, improved transportation options towards the end of the 1800s, especially the construction of railways, and the development of new mechanical innovations from the early twentieth century — including the first mass-affordable automobile, ultimately superseded the four legged version of horsepower and ousting our daily reliance on the horse. Stan Berriman ‘A man and a boy ploughing a field’ 1938 Even so, the horse is still part of our daily conversation today with a myriad of horse-related expressions that have been handed down to us over the ages; and when Australia stops for one of the most famous races in the world on the first Tuesday of November, we are reminded of popular horse racing terminology that has also made its way into our everyday language with ‘Jockeying into position’ and ‘Starting from scratch’; and who isn’t tempted to hang a horseshoe over the door for good luck? Let’s look at the works currently on display, and some of our favourites in storage that feature the horse — they transport us around in grand carriages, we ride them, race them, study them, document their lives, they are a status and power symbol, our ally in war, we cherish them as close companions, and most importantly, they inspire us to create. So, next time you visit the Gallery, see how many horses you can find, also check out our round-up of cats and dogs in the Collection. ‘Horse head’ 202BC-AD8 (Western Han dynasty) ‘Horse’ 618-907 (Tang dynasty) Albrecht Dürer ‘The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse’ 1497–98 Tosa Mitsuatsu ‘Pair of six fold screens’ 18th century Utagawa Hiroshige III ‘View of trading companies at Yokohama‘ 1871 ‘Netsuke: (two horses)‘ 19th century George Jones ‘Black horse’ ST Gill ‘Overlanders’ 1865 William Strutt ‘Study of a horse’s head‘ 1884 Harriet Jane Neville-Rolfe ‘Breakfast, Alpha’ 1884 ‘Racing trophy: The Wythes and Hodgson Cup’ c.1870-73 Eadweard Muybridge ‘Dan’ galloping, saddled’ 1887 Hans Heysen ‘The grass stack‘ 1906 George W Lambert ‘Bushranger‘ George W. Lambert ‘Walk (An incident at Romani)’ 1919-22 Ethel Spowers ‘Birds following a plough’ 1933 Hilda Rix Nicholas ‘The fair musterer’1935 Irene Mbitjana Entata ‘Albert Namatjira droving‘ 2001 Nick Cave ‘HEARD’ 2012 Elliott Murray is Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA