Contemporary Art

DEBORAH BUTTERFIELD
(American, born 1949)

Untitled (Horse), 1981
Sticks and paper on wire armature
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry V. Heuser, Sr. 1982.1

Born on May 7, 1949, the day of the 75th running of the Kentucky Derby, Deborah Butterfield seems fated for her life-long love affair with horses. She began sketching horses as a child and considered a career in veterinary medicine before becoming an artist in the early 1970s. She now lives on a ranch in Montana, where, in addition to creating her nationally recognized artworks, she raises and shows horses.

Although she now uses rusted metal and other found industrial materials, Butterfield began sculpting her horses from earthen materials, such as mud, sticks, and straw. For Untitled (Horse), which the artist describes as “an aggressive mare with a big ego,” Butterfield replaces mud with brown-tinted paper that still suggests an organic appearance. In choosing to model her sculpture out of sticks, Butterfield says, “I see them more as the merging of the subject (foreground) and the environment (background), so the horse is the environment and of the environment.” The horses in Deborah Butterfield’s sculptures often serve as metaphors for man’s relationship with nature and for the artist and her emotions.

To see a work by Deborah Butterfield in the collection of the University of Kentucky Art Mueseum, click here.