Sunday, November 8, 2009

Deborah Butterfield ~ Dance Horse and the Kentucky Derby


Deborah Butterfield is known worldwide for her horses, better known than Michael Brophy whose painting hung behind Dance Horse back in 1999. Perhaps it's having horses be the core of her ouvere. In any case, her sculptures, and they are of horses, are in the collections of almost all of the major museums in the country. How did this fascination start? Many biographies cite that she was born in San Diego, California, on the day of the 75th running of the Kentucky Derby and that Butterfield herself credits this event as determining her career as a modernist sculptor of horses.

Listening to her talk about the core of her work, she tells us of how we changed the horse and the horse changed us. These videos, recorded at a presentation to docents at the Nevada Art Museum in November 2007, are short and will take just a few minutes to view. Listening to Butterfield talk about her work is most compelling.


No comments: