Public Artwork
Four Horsemen
Location:
Concordia University, Loyola Campus, Vanier Library, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, QC, Canada
See map: Google Maps
Artwork creator(s):
Houdé, François
Text author(s):
MacEwen, Gwendolyn
Collaborator(s):
Louise (his sister); Plante, Louis Pierre; Taillon, Luc; Marcoux, Gilles; Magne, Robert (support for the architect)
Installation year:
1989
Remarks on location:
The arwork is located at the Vanier Library, in the stairwell. The work is visible from the 1st to the 3rd floor. A skylight provides natural light.
Description:
Composed of about 300 industrial glass blocks, this work is the last of the artist's works known as the Ming Series. Using horses as a pretext to create a metaphor of building civilizations, Houde creates a dialogue between ideas borrowed from the history of literature, art and science: sandcasted glass depicting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Durer; a metal arch representing a Medieval church portal; sandblasted glass simulating a fragment of the Partehnon frieze; and a movement study by Eadweard Muybridge.
Text of the artwork:
Go and tell: It is morning,
And this horse with a mane the colour of sea foam
Is the first horse that the world has ever seen.
The white horse which stands now watching you
Across this field of endless sunlight
-Gwendolyn MacEwen
Artwork theme:
Medieval Chinese funerary art that worships horses.
History:
Part of the Ming series
Artist's biography:
Francois Houde
Author's biography:
Gwendolyn MacEwen
Owner(s):
Concordia University 
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