Caballos en Celo

Mauricio Lasansky

This early engraving is one of Mauricio Lasanksy's signature early works, done in 1944 while Lasansky was at Atelier 17 in New York, arriving there from Argentina in 1943.

While in Argentina the young artist was influenced by Picasso and the surrealists, as evidenced in this powerful image that pays homage to Picasso's "Guernica".

“Caballos en Celo”, which roughly means "Rival Horses" is also known as "Fighting Horses". This was the artist's third print done at the Atelier, the first a surreal horse, twisted in anger or agony. The second was the iconic "Doma", a Surreal struggle between a horse and a human. This image is struggle between two Surreal horses.

Though the imagery has been interpreted to be an homage to Picasso, Lasansky noted that the burin line was distinctly his own.

The Lasansky catalog raisonne notes a single edition of 50 (like this), but the earlier catalog by the Philadelphia Museum notes an edition of 25, like the two previous works. Lasansky printed a second edition of 50 of "Doma" in 1974 and it is possible he did it also with this plate.