DISCUSSION:
This incredibly monumental and exquisite sculpture leaves most of its viewers speechless, as its stunning presence gives way to awe and fascination that Deborah Butterfield evokes in her work. Through her many renditions of horses using various mediums, she is considered to be one of the leading and most influential contemporary artists of our time.

Executed in 1976, Horse was created using mud and straw over a supportive armature and horseshoes. Prone to using found objects and materials, Butterfield took inspiration from her immediate environment and used what was available to her at her home and property in Wisconsin. That same year, Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago became the first to hold a solo exhibition on Butterfield’s works, including Horse. This work was included in her first show solo show. A note about this work that I find personally whimsical is the subtle inclusion of horse shoes on the hooves of this piece.

During her early period of sculpture, Butterfield focused on using raw, organic materials (e.g. mud, straw, clay) which, when formed and set to create her life-size horses, creates a fascinating, textured surface highlighting both the medium and the musculature of the horse itself. The monumentality of the work is stunning and still manages to retain a sense of whimsicality and humor while addressing pertinent themes in the context of contemporary art. According to John Yau, Butterfield’s horses “can be understood as both mythic creatures and as animals whose existence is closely tied to nature, the earth.” Her use of mud and straw is especially pertinent as it draws a formal relationship between our conventional ideas on sculpture and Butterfield’s unique interpretation of horses as a her primary subject. Its inherent strength is directly linked to its grandeur and scale, making this sculpture simultaneously poignant and dazzling; definitely an exceptional masterpiece for part of any collection.