Thursday, November 5, 2009

Deborah Butterfield ~ Dance Horse



When you're walking by the Portland Art Museum, you're able to see a portion of the collection without even stepping through the doors, let alone paying admission. This week's selection here at Fifty Two Pieces is one of the many sculptures in the outdoor Sculpture Garden. Rain or shine, day or night, Deborah Butterfield's Dance Horse stands as if looking for a carrot, apple or maybe some alfalfa. Butterfield is known for her horse sculptures. This week well be looking more closely at Dance Horse as well as some of the others that she has created over the years and released into the wild.

3 comments:

Horses said...

I have always enjoyed her work. Similar works were displayed in San Francisco recently. I have yet to see this type of Butterfield horse on display, though.

LaValle Linn said...

Her early horses like the one linked in Horses comment are not only large but they're also made of mud and straw. Unlike Dance Horse that was first displayed indoors here at PAM, the mud/straw ones from early in her career could only be shown indoors. That's a great deal of real estate in small galleries.
... LaValle

Virginia Wieringa said...

One of her driftwood horses is in a small field in the Meijer Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids MI. They had an exhibit of many of her works and a great video about the laborious way the pieces are assembled, disassembled and cast.