Deborah Butterfield

robert gordon john yau vicki hearne jane smiley

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

This edition

Format: 180 pages, Hardcover
Published: September 16, 2003 by Harry N. Abrams
ISBN: 9780810946293
ASIN: 0810946297
Language: English

About the author

robert gordon

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.