posted January 5, 2006
Deborah Butterfield will be at the Hunter Museum of American Art on Jan. 13 to open her show which features twelve evocative sculptures of horses in bronze, steel, and mixed media.
This exhibition was organized and curated by the Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Mt. and its showing in Chattanooga is partially funded by Chattanooga Gas.
Most of the pieces to be shown are from Deborah Butterfield’s personal collection and have rarely been seen by the public.
Deborah Butterfield first gained wide notice at the 1979 Whitney Biennial. Horses have been the single, sustained focus of Ms. Butterfield’s work for over 30 years. Her early work, fragile creations of mud, sticks, straw, and found metal, evoke horses either standing or resting on the ground.
Since the mid-1980s she has been creating medium and full-size horses from driftwood branches, casting the finished sculpture in bronze. The intricate casting process involving twenty people takes two to three months for a large horse.
A true lover of horses, Ms. Butterfield is an accomplished dressage rider. She owns twelve horses and rides daily when at home in Montana.
Adding Ms. Butterfield’s sculpture Boreal to the Hunter’s collection a few years ago and locating it near the old entry was an important acquisition for the Museum and emphasized the commitment to contemporary American sculpture, said officials. With the completion of the recent expansion, Boreal was relocated between the Holmberg Pedestrian bridge and the new front door.
“I always enjoy seeing the smiles on the faces of people as they approach the sculpture, then comes the look of surprise when they realize it is a bronze sculpture and not drift wood. Having an exhibition of work by this significant American artist is important for the Hunter, and will be one that I know people will enjoy,” said Robert A. Kret, the Hunter’s director.
A DVD entitled Deborah Butterfield: Dialogue with the Artist showing the artist at work in her Montana and Hawaii studios, and a step-by-step overview of the bronze casting process at the Walla Walla Foundry, will also be on view at the Hunter.
Ms. Butterfield received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Davis, in 1972, followed by her Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1973. In 1997, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Rocky Mountain College in Billings. This honor was repeated in 1998 by Montana State University, Bozeman, Mt. Ms. Butterfield’s teaching career began in 1974 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Ms. Butterfield has exhibited across the United States and Europe. Her work is widely collected by private individuals and museums, and she has been commissioned to create site-specific sculptures by a number of significant museums and public sites, including the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Israel Museum; San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art; Oakland Museum; Urban Development Corporation of Boston, Massachusetts – Copley Square; the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Greenwich, Connecticut, Arts Council; the Portland, Oregon, International Airport; the Kansas City Zoo; and the Denver Art Museum.
The Hunter Museum of American Art is located at 10 Bluff View. The Museum is open every day until 5 p.m., Thursday’s until 9 p.m. For more information call the Museum at (423) 267-0968.
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