Patricia Cronin

Tack Room

White Columns, New York NY
April 17 - May 24, 1998

In Tack Room, Cronin uses the “equestrian lifestyle” as lens through which to see sexuality and class. Here the artist focuses on the subjectivity of young women, girls, and the object of desire for many of them – horses and blends an American fantasy of affluent White Anglo-Saxon Protestant milieu with subversive female empowerment.

Cronin hand built the wooden paneled 12’ x 12’ architectural immersive installation replicating the part a stable on a large estate where all the equestrian accoutrements are stored and filled it with “ready-made” found objects and handmade art works, including authentic equipment: saddles, bridles, whips, and crops; clothing: breeches, suede chaps, gloves and helmets; nutrition and veterinarian aids: bandages, vitamins, treats, ointments, and oils; sporting materials: magazines, ribbons, trophies, and posters; and included the artist’s bronze horse sculptures and equine oil portrait paintings.

After closer viewing, the sensual materiality of the room’s contents, the smell of leather and hay permeate the installation, the accumulated suede chaps, leather bridles, metal bits, whips and paddles suggest a more erotic reading of the work and open up Cronin's fantasy of what an architectural space where female sexuality isn't ridiculed, but rather celebrated could look like.

Tack Room debuted at White Columns, New York, NY (1998) and was named one of the top ten shows of 1998 by art critic Lisa Liebmann in Artforum. It then traveled to Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT (1999), the UB Art Gallery at SUNY Buffalo, NY (2004), The Armory Show, New York, NY (2017) in Platform, the curated section of large installations curated by Eric Shiner and most recently in "Horses?" at Chart Gallery, New York, NY (2021).

Installation Views