Image series 18 / 2026: Year of the Fire Horse
Element and Zodiac Sign
26 April 2026
|
By: Bettina Pfleging
On 17 February 2026, the Year of the Fire Horse began in the Chinese lunar calendar, a combination of the element of fire and the zodiac sign of the horse. According to tradition in China, Korea and Japan, it symbolises energy, speed and the drive for change. For over two millennia, the horse has shaped the arts and cultures of East Asia as a celestial mount, a status symbol and an emblem of strength, power and virtue.
Paintings, woodblock prints, ceramics, porcelain, bronze sculptures and lacquerware in the Lunar New Year exhibition illustrate the multifaceted significance of the horse. The exhibition also features an excerpt from the horizontal scroll ‘Autumn Hunt’, a work by anonymous court painters from the 18th century, artistically adapted and animated by filmmaker Jie Lu.
„Celebrating the Lunar Year of the Horse. Galloping through time and space“
3 December 2025 until 31 January 2027, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln
Tomb Sculpture in the Form of a Standing Horse, 2nd cent. BCE – 1st cent. BCE, 57,5 × 58,3 × 17,1 cm; Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Library
Prancing Horse with Mouth Open and Forelock Coifed, 1st cent. – 2nd cent., 26.5 × 31.5 × 8 cm, Cambridge; Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Library
Horse, Tang dynasty, (A.D. 618–907), earthenware, 77,5 × 71,5 cm, Chicago; The Art Institute of Chicago
Horse, late 600s–800, glazed earthenware, Overall: 76,8 cm, Cleveland; The Cleveland Museum of Art
Tomb figure of a woman on horseback, ca. 700-750, Tang dynasty, Earthenware with lead-silicate glazes and painted details, 43,1 × 14,8 × 37,6 cm, Luoyang; Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Horse tomb figure, 650 – 750, earthenware, Amsterdam; Rijksmuseum Collection, Amsterdam
Saddled Horse – Funeral figure in the shape of a horse, 400 – 500, earthenware, h 23,3 × 21 × 18,3 cm, Amsterdam; Rijksmuseum Collection, Amsterdam
Pferd auf Wolken / Horse on Clouds, Ausschnitt, um 1250, Marmor, H: 48,6 cm, Peking; HeidICON – Ostasienwissenschaften, Ruprecht-Karl-Universität Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek
