Cao Li has always been drawn to the horse as a subject for his art in various mediums. He says it is in part because he was born in the year of the horse, but also because he likes interpreting the muscular figure of the animal. In Stereoscopic Horse, painted in 2002, Cao Li has utilized what Westerners might define as a Cubist style, yet this multi-view perspective is something Chinese artists have used for centuries in traditional brush painting. Cao Li has simply updated it, contrasting not only color and value, but texture and detail. The artist says he has no literal translation for the title, however, a viewer might assume that if one were to look at a picture of this horse through a stereoscope, the image would be three dimensional.