Standing sixteen and a half feet high and made of fiberglass, it shows a Mexican-American cowboy on a bright blue high-kicking horse. The figure is so energized that it almost looks like an animated cartoon. Part hero, part Zorro, this sculpture has one foot in the old traditions of equestrian sculpture and another in popular culture.

This sculpture sits on a plinth in front of the museum's entrance. It has become the emblem of the National Museum of American Art; you can just tell your cabdriver, "I want to go to the museum with the blue horse out in front."

Pictured: Luis Jimenez, Vaquero, modeled 1980/cast 1990; acrylic urethane, fiberglass, steel armature, 199 x 114 x 67 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Judith and Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., Anne and Ronald Abramson, Thelma and Melvin Lenkin.

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