- In full:
- Deborah Kay Butterfield
- Born:
- May 7, 1949, San Diego, California, U.S. (age 77)
Deborah Butterfield
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Who is Deborah Butterfield?
Deborah Butterfield, born May 7, 1949, is an American sculptor celebrated for her elegant, semiabstract sculptures of horses, initially crafted from natural and found materials.
Butterfield's fascination with horses began in childhood. She studied at the University of California (UC), Davis, earning a B.A. in 1972 and an M.F.A. in 1973. From 1974 to 1987, she taught sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Montana State University in Bozeman.
Her early horse sculptures, created with plaster over steel frames, evolved to incorporate mud, sticks, tree parts, and straw. Butterfield received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 1977 and 1980 and gained recognition after being included in the 1979 Whitney Biennial.
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What kind of art does Deborah Butterfield make?
Deborah Butterfield is an American sculptor celebrated for her semiabstract and elegant sculptures of horses. Initially, she crafted these sculptures from natural and found materials.
Butterfield's artistic journey began with a passion for horses in her childhood, leading her to create her first horse sculpture in 1973 using plaster over a steel frame. In the mid-1970s, she transitioned to using natural materials like mud, sticks, tree parts, and straw to cover the horse's frame. Later, she incorporated found industrial materials such as metal scraps, tires, and barbed wire. In the mid-1980s, Butterfield started using wooden frames, later cast in bronze and treated to resemble wood, ensuring the longevity of her works, especially those exhibited outdoors.
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What materials does she use in her sculptures?
Deborah Butterfield is an American sculptor celebrated for her semiabstract, elegant horse sculptures. Initially, she crafted these from natural and found materials like mud, sticks, tree parts, and straw over a steel frame.
In the 1980s, Butterfield broadened her material palette to include found industrial materials such as metal scraps, tires, and barbed wire. Later, she transitioned to creating wooden armatures, which she then cast in bronze and treated to resemble wood. This switch to bronze ensured her works were more durable, especially for outdoor display.
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Why are horses an important subject in her artwork?
Deborah Butterfield is an American sculptor celebrated for her elegant, semi-abstract sculptures of horses, initially crafted from natural and found materials.
Butterfield's fascination with horses began in her childhood. She made her first horse sculpture in 1973 using plaster over a steel frame. She created sculptures of calm, unbridled mares, viewing them as metaphorical self-portraits and a feminist response to the aggressive stallions prevalent in Western art. Living on a ranch in Montana with her husband, artist John Buck, she kept horses and was active in competitive dressage. Her familiarity with equine physiology imbued her works with sensitivity, power, emotional depth, and visible tenderness.
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How does she create her horse sculptures to look lifelike, even with unusual materials?
Deborah Butterfield, born in 1949, is an American sculptor celebrated for her semiabstract and elegant horse sculptures. Her deep understanding and familiarity with equine physiology allows her to imbue her works with sensitivity, power, emotional depth, and visible tenderness, despite using unusual materials.
Butterfield initially used natural and found materials like mud, sticks, tree parts, and straw over steel frames. Even when she transitioned to found industrial materials such as metal scraps, tires, and barbed wire, her horses retained fluidity and grace in their postures. In the mid-1980s, Butterfield began using wooden armatures and having them cast in bronze, which was then treated to resemble wood, ensuring her works a longer life.
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How has Deborah Butterfield influenced the world of sculpture and other artists?
Deborah Butterfield is an American sculptor celebrated for her elegant, semiabstract sculptures of horses, initially crafted from natural and found materials.
Butterfield's sculptures began with plaster over steel frames in 1973 and evolved to incorporate mud, sticks, tree parts, and straw in the mid-1970s. Her work gained significant recognition after being featured in the 1979 Whitney Biennial. A Guggenheim fellowship allowed her to create art from salvaged steel and other materials in Jerusalem, marking a shift toward industrial materials while maintaining the fluidity and grace of her horses. Her sculptures range from three feet high to life-size.
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Deborah Butterfield (born May 7, 1949, San Diego, California, U.S.) is an American sculptor known for her semiabstract elegant sculptures of horses, made initially from natural and found materials.
Butterfieldâs passion for horses began during her childhood. When she attended the University of California (UC), Davis, she found it difficult to choose between art and veterinary medicine. Ultimately choosing art, she earned a B.A. in 1972. That summer she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and she returned to UC Davis for an M.F.A. (1973). From 1974 to 1977 she taught sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, first as a lecturer and from 1975 as an assistant professor. From 1977 to 1979 she was a visiting artist at Montana State University in Bozeman, and she joined the faculty there in 1979 as an assistant professor and later became an adjunct assistant professor (1984â87). Though she dedicated her professional career to art-making, Butterfield lived her life with her husband, artist John Buck, on a ranch in Montana, where they kept horses. She was active in competitive dressage, the practice of training horses to execute precise movements and maneuvers.
Using plaster over a steel frame, Butterfield created her first sculpture of a horse in 1973. She created tame unbridled mares in calm postures, because she viewed her sculptures both as metaphorical self-portraits and as a feminist response to the aggressive and charged stallions that dominate the painting and sculpture of Western art. In the mid-1970s, she turned to natural materials and began using a mix of mud, salvaged sticks, tree parts, and straw to cover the frame of the horse. She received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 1977 and 1980, and she achieved a major career breakthrough when she was included in the 1979 Whitney Biennial.
In 1980, in addition to her second NEA grant, Butterfield earned a Guggenheim fellowship, which she used to travel to Israel and make art from steel and other materials she salvaged from junkyards in Jerusalem. In 1981 the Israel Museum held an exhibition of that work called âJerusalem Horsesâ and acquired one of the sculptures from that series. Although her subject matter remained horses, her project in Israel ushered in a new period in which she used found industrial materials, such as scraps of metal, tires, and barbed wire. Despite the hard edges of her medium, Butterfieldâs horses retained a fluidity and grace in their various postures. In the mid-1980s she began creating wooden armatures and having them cast in bronze. The bronze was then treated to resemble wood. Her use of bronze ensured her works a longer life, especially since many were exhibited outdoors. Butterfieldâs sculptures range in size from about three feet (one metre) high to life-size. Her familiarity with and understanding of equine physiology made her works both sensitive and powerful, giving them great emotional depth and an almost visible tenderness. Each successive portrait was fresh and provided new insight.