Deborah Butterfield

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Deborah Kay Butterfield (born May 7, 1949) is an American sculptor.

She divides her time between a farm in Bozeman, Montana, and a studio space in Hawaii with her artist-husband John Buck.

She is best known for her sculptures of horses made from found objects, such as metal and particularly pieces of wood.

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Career

Butterfield's sculptures have been on view often, and art collectors are in raving for her work. Her earliest works from the mid-1970s were made from sticks and natural detritus gathered on her property in Bozeman, Montana. "The photographs were supposed to show that the horses were both figures and ground, blending the outside world with the subject." In the early 1980s, she began making horses out of scrap metal and cast bronze. She would create a piece of wood and other metal fastened together with wire, then photograph the work from all angles in order to assemble the piece in metal.

"I first used the horse images as a metaphorical substitute for myself," Butterfield said. "These first horses were massive plaster mares whose presence was extremely delicate," she said. They were resting and in complete opposition to the raging warhorse (stallion) that depicts the majority of equine sculpture. Since the river flooded and subsided, the next generation of horses was made of mud and sticks and it was suggested that their forms were left clotted together. The pieces were dark and almost sinister, indicating that I was perhaps more like the warhorse than the quiet mares. They portrayed a variety of beliefs and feelings that emerged after a slew of events. The materials and photographs were supposed to show that the horses were both figure and ground, seamlessly linking the outside world with the subject."

"By now Deborah Butterfield's skeletal horses, made of found wood, metal, and other detritus detritus," critic Grace Glueck wrote in The New York Times in 2004, "By now Deborah Butterfield's skeletal horses, made from found wood, metal, and other detritus, are familiar to almost a generation of gallerygoers." However, they still have a freshness, owing to the artist's treatment of them as individuals. As she does at her Montana farm, she believes in fact that preparing, riding, and bonding with horses are like personifications of herself. They seem to depict the very essence of equine life."

Butterfield has confirmed that her horses are intended to make a feminist statement. "I wanted to do these big, beautiful mares that were both strong and imposing as stallions but also capable of creation and feeding life." It was a personal feminist remark," the author wrote.

Deborah Butterfield is represented by Danese/Corey, San Francisco; Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; and Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois. Deborah Butterfield's work includes the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Rockwell Museum (Corning, N.Y), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Madison, WI), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Madison, Wisconsin), the Wagner Museum of Art (Mady, Missouri), and the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, New York). The Rockford Art Museum in Rockford, Illinois, is also on display. Butterfield was on display in the 1989 Women's Art Exhibition, Women's Art: The Montana Women's Centennial Art Survey Exhibition 1889-1989, 1909–1989. Deborah Butterfield has two sculptures on display in Des Moines, Iowa, which are Juno (1989) and Ancient Forest (2009).

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