2022 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction / Lot 241
According to art critic Ellen Handy, “Long one of our most distinguished sculptors, Deborah Butterfield has always chosen to mine a single theme deeply and, one might add, very slowly. Her long series of sculptures of horses has taken many forms despite its constant subject. The media, from plaster to mud to scrap metal, imply the diversity of sculptural materials available in the twentieth century and, more importantly, demonstrate the apparently effortless technical virtuosity of Butterfield’s work.”
Born in San Diego, California, Deborah Butterfield studied at the University of California at Davis (BA, MFA) and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine. Since 1979, she has lived with her husband, artist John Buck, near Bozeman. She has been the recipient of two NEA fellowships and a Guggenheim award. Her works are included in numerous important public and corporate collections including: the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.