R I P L E Y

The National Heritage Centre for Horseracing & Sporting Art at Palace House, Newmarket has acquired a remarkable contemporary photographic print by Ripley. It will be on view from 30th October 2018 in the Museum’s Gallery 6.

Dr Patricia Hardy, Packard Head of Collections, Exhibitions and Displays said: ‘We are delighted when high calibre artworks are added to our national horseracing collection. Thanks to everyone involved for enabling us to share this beautiful work featuring the celebrated Pivotal.’

This work portrays Pivotal with mares and foals at Cheveley Park Stud. Born in 1993 Pivotal won the Nunthorpe Stakes in 1996, as did his son Kyllachy in 2002 and his grandson Sole Power in 2010 and 2014, and has become known as a phenomenal breeding stallion. As of October 2018 he was the sire of over 228 Stakes performers (83 Group winners and 63 Listed winners) over different distances.

Pivotal is shown here at Cheveley Park, bought by David and Patricia Thompson in 1977, where Pivotal was born and bred. He was selected to be the subject of this work by the Newmarket Open Weekend committee which commissioned the photographer Ripley. He proceeded to spend almost a year taking hundreds of photographs of the stud, the landscape, and Pivotal which he digitally manipulated to create a unique composition. Pivotal in reality would not share a paddock with mares and foals, nor does the stud have these specific trees and the sky is a compilation of numerous images but as a whole the composition is beautifully balanced. The work is painstaking because every image is magnified to a very high resolution to provide the greatest level of detail. The heightened colour of the red stable doors and green grass is balanced by the tones of cloud and sky and Pivotal is centrally positioned to give maximum impact.

 

________