Deborah Butterfield
Lucky, 2021
Cast bronze
87 × 110 1/2 × 24 1/2 in (221 × 280.7 × 62.2 cm)
Inquire
Deborah Butterfield
Horses are like waves. They like the ocean, there is that danger and respect. The idea that at any moment they can kill you. Not that they want to. They’re just … they’re forces of nature. But I guess the horses that I’m talking about are the ones that have shown an interested in getting to know me, and I’m just so honored by that. There’s that, and how then you both have to negotiate a new language that is somewhere between human and horse. And often it’s a very formal language.
Here is this being that is so large and powerful, and yet somehow so potentially gentle and interested in communicating. It’s like having someone from another planet wanting to get to know you.
Deborah Butterfield
Untitled (Foal), 2014
bronze
66 x 71 x 25 in (167.6 x 180.3 x 63.5 cm)
Untitled (Large Horse), 2013
bronze
83 x 99 1/2 x 39 1/2 in. (210.8 x 252.7 x 100.3 cm)
Inquire
They have this spirit within them, and I’m trying to honor that spirit.
