Running Horses

Today's stop on the occasional tour of transit mall art is Running Horses by Tom Hardy, on SW 6th Avenue near Madison. If you have a vague sense that this one isn't actually new, you're correct. The horses were commissioned as part of the original Pioneer Courthouse Square project in 1986, and were a sort of companion piece to Animals in Pools, apparently. So they've been removed from their original context here, but I'm not sure that's a problem. There probably is such a thing as too many animal sculptures in one place.

Sybilla Avery Cook's Walking Portland describes the sculpture:

Running Horses, a metal sculpture, is on the Pioneer Courthouse side of the square. Tom Hardy, a noted Oregon artist, has been designing motion-filled sculptures of stone, welded steel, and bronze for over 50 years. Portland contains many of his birds and other animal pieces. His work can be seen all over the United States; an eagle medallion he created adorns the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C.

I don't usually pay very close attention to animal sculptures; I have only the vaguest recollection of where exactly Running Horses was located at Pioneer Courthouse Square. I'm fairly certain I never stopped to look at them in either location until I took the photos you see here. So it's possible I've seen any number of Hardy's other works around town and I just wouldn't know it. The only one I know of that I've seen is the heron sculpture up at Howell Territorial Park; once you know they're by the same guy, the stylistic resemblance is pretty obvious. For more info about him, OPB's Oregon Art Beat did a profile of Hardy in 2005.

Note that in several of these photos, you'll see that Running Horses is just across the street from Hilda Morris's Ring of Time (the little black onion ring-shaped thing across the street). I think it's worth crossing the street to go have a peek at, but I realize I'm not most people, and your mileage may vary.