Deborah Butterfield
Encyclopedia
Deborah Kay Butterfield is an American sculptor. She divides her time between a ranch in Bozeman, Montana
and studio space in Hawaii. She is known for her sculptures of horses made from found objects, like metal, and especially pieces of wood
.
, Butterfield partly credits that birthdate as an inspiration for her subject matter; she has also said that she would have preferred to work in the female form, but that her mentor Manuel Neri
dominated that form. Instead, she chose to create self-portraits using images of horses. Gradually, the horses themselves became her primary theme. Butterfield earned a bachelors degree in 1971 and an M.F.A. in 1973 at the University of California, Davis
, where she met her husband, artist John E. Buck
. They married in 1974 and have two sons.
and cast bronze
in the early 1980s. She would sculpt a piece using wood and other materials fastened together with wire, then photograph
the piece from all angles so as to be able to reassemble the piece in metal. She only works in the winter, so pieces usually take 3 to 5 years.
Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The 2010 census put Bozeman's population at 37,280 making it the fourth largest city in the state. It is the principal city of the Bozeman micropolitan area, which consists...
and studio space in Hawaii. She is known for her sculptures of horses made from found objects, like metal, and especially pieces of wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
.
Background
Born the same day as the 75th running of the Kentucky DerbyKentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
, Butterfield partly credits that birthdate as an inspiration for her subject matter; she has also said that she would have preferred to work in the female form, but that her mentor Manuel Neri
Manuel Neri
Manuel Neri is an American sculptor, painter, and printmaker and a notable member of the "second generation" of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.- Biography :...
dominated that form. Instead, she chose to create self-portraits using images of horses. Gradually, the horses themselves became her primary theme. Butterfield earned a bachelors degree in 1971 and an M.F.A. in 1973 at the University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
, where she met her husband, artist John E. Buck
John E. Buck
John Buck is an American sculptor and printmaker who was born in Ames, Iowa. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kansas City Art Institute in 1968, and in 1971, he studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine...
. They married in 1974 and have two sons.
Career
Butterfield's work has been exhibited widely and there is demand among art collectors for her sculptures. She began crafting horses out of scrap metalMetal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
and cast bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
in the early 1980s. She would sculpt a piece using wood and other materials fastened together with wire, then photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
the piece from all angles so as to be able to reassemble the piece in metal. She only works in the winter, so pieces usually take 3 to 5 years.
My work is not so overtly about movement. My horses' gestures are really quite quiet, because real horses move so much better than I could pretend to make things move. For the pieces I make, the gesture is really more within the body, it's like an internalized gesture, which is more about the content, the state of mind or of being at a given instant. And so it's more like a painting ... the gesture and the movement is all pretty much contained within the body.
Public installations
- Seneca ParkSeneca ParkSeneca Park was the last park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The park system in Louisville was the last out of five designed by the Olmsted firm. The park resides in the Louisville neighborhood of Seneca Gardens, Kentucky...
, ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, 1989 - Toledo Museum of ArtToledo Museum of ArtThe Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio, United States. The museum was founded by Toledo glassmaker Edward Drummond Libbey in 1901, and moved to its present location, a Greek revival building designed by Edward B....
Sculpture Garden, Toledo, OhioToledo, OhioToledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, 2001 - The Contemporary Museum, HonoluluThe Contemporary Museum, HonoluluThe now defunct Contemporary Museum, Honolulu was the only museum in the state of Hawaii devoted exclusively to contemporary art. The Contemporary Museum had two venues: in residential Honolulu at the historic Spalding House, and downtown Honolulu at First Hawaiian Center.-Collection:Artists...
in Hawaii - 1635 Village Center Drive, Las VegasLas Vegas metropolitan areaThe Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, NevadaNevadaNevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its... - Minneapolis Sculpture GardenMinneapolis Sculpture GardenThe Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is an 11 acre park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States.It is located near the Walker Art Center, which operates it in coordination with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board...
, MinnesotaMinnesotaMinnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state... - The Mennello Museum of American ArtThe Mennello Museum of American ArtThe Mennello Museum of American Art is an art museum locacted in the Howard Phillips' house in the Loch Haven Park next to Lake Formosa in Orlando, Florida. The museum displays paintings and sculptures and contains at its core a permanent collection of paintings by Earl Cunningham . The Cunningham...
, Orlando FL, 2008 - Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York, NY - Modern Art Museum of Fort WorthModern Art Museum of Fort WorthThe Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth was first granted a Charter from the State of Texas in 1892 as the "Fort Worth Public Library and Art Gallery", evolving through several name changes and different facilities in Fort Worth...
, Fort Worth, TX - Hunter Museum of American ArtHunter Museum of American ArtThe Hunter Museum of American Art is an art museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The museum's collections include works representing the Hudson River School, 19th century genre painting, American Impressionism, the Ashcan School, early modernism, regionalism, and post World War II modern and...
Sculpture Garden, Chattanooga, TN - Memorial Art GalleryMemorial Art GalleryThe Memorial Art Gallery is the civic art museum of Rochester, New York. Founded in 1913, it is part of the University of Rochester and occupies the southern half of the University's former Prince Street campus...
, University of RochesterUniversity of RochesterThe University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
, Rochester, NY - Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture ParkFrederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture ParkFrederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is a botanical garden and outdoor sculpture park located in Grand Rapids Township, Michigan in Kent County. Commonly referred to as Meijer Gardens, it has quickly become one of the most significant sculpture experiences in the Midwest and an emerging...
, Grand Rapids, MI - Purdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPurdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
, West Lafayette, IN Installed: October 19, 2009 - Wind River installed in 2004 at Texas Tech UniversityTexas Tech UniversityTexas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
, Lubbock, TX - Pappajohn Sculpture Parkhttp://www.desmoinesregister.com/pappajohn-sculpture-park, Des Moines, IA