Deborah Butterfield

by Robert Gordon, John Yau (Essay), Vicki Hearne (Poems)

Deborah Butterfield transforms pieces of scrap metal and found wood into majestic, life-size horse sculptures that are, as art historian Wayne L. Roosa has written, "like ancient, noble archaeological remains, skeletal and grand." Her sculptures also may be the first works to explore the interior lives of horses - a long overdue answer to centuries of martial and monumental equine art.
This volume presents a retrospective look at this important American artist. At the core of the book are color photographs of the sculptures, installed in galleries, in the artist's studios, and at Walla Walla Foundry. An insightful essay by novelist and horsewoman Jane Smiley sensitively captures the depth of Butterfield's passion for horses both living and sculpted. John Yau, poet and art critic, adds a formal analysis of the artist's work. In a selection of poems, the late poet Vicki Hearne, a close friend of Butterfield's, translates this world of horse-human dialogue. Robert Gordon has followed the artist's career for a quarter century and brings unique insight and vision to her body of work.

Genres: Art

180 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2003

About the author

Robert Gordon (b. 1961) is an American writer and filmmaker from Memphis, Tennessee. His work has focused on the American south—its music, art, and politics—to create an insider's portrait of his home, both nuanced and ribald.