The Man Who Turned Horseracing Into An Artform
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.MARK WALLINGER sees his marble Christ-figure as a unifying symbol for the millennium. But Wallinger, 40, beaten to the Turner Prize in 1985 by Damien Hirst, has socially stayed aloof from the Britpack artists and brings more of a political dimension to his art than his peers.
Born in Chigwell, Essex, he went to Chelsea School of Art and later took an MA at Goldsmith's College, the alma mater of Hirst and many of the Sensation artists.
Horse-racing has been among his passions since childhood, for political as well as sporting reasons. He once said: "Bookies represent the purest form of capitalism. They buy and sell nothing and, like the money markets, react instantly to market forces."
For a self-portrait he registered the colours of the suffragette movement with Tattersalls and posed in jockey's silks in purple, white and green.
He lives in London and was a regular at the Delfina Studio Cafe in Bermondsey, where "resident" artists could lunch for pounds 1.
But he is not every art lover's cup of tea. The critic Andrew Graham- Dixon said: "Wallinger's [pictures] are pedestrian pastiches of Stubbs."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments