Pale Horse from the Four Horses of the Apocalypse

Series, 2020
Acrylic on Canvas,
48×30 inches

The Pale Horse is the fourth and final figure in the arrival of the Biblical Apocalypse.

The rider’s name is Death, and he is followed by Hades. Traditionally represented as a black-cloaked skeleton with a scythe, I have chosen to show him instead as a black void. This is because death to me is not a tangible or understandable thing that can be represented by a physical object. His horse is ghostly and phosphorescent, head down like a dead horse walking. Behind him Hades swirls to enter the physical realm. The forms in this painting are fractured by the dissolution of reality, an incomprehensible scene to the human mind.

It is my thought that the final horse, never experienced by humanity until the world’s final moments, represents the fear that was felt globally during the Covid pandemic. It is a manifestation of the unnamable absolute we all felt in our souls but could not express or communicate with one another.