Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

Rex

Artist/Maker Deborah Butterfield (United States, b. 1949)

Date1991

Mediumpainted found steel

DimensionsOverall: 77 x 110 x 24 in. (195.6 x 279.4 x 61 cm)

ClassificationsVisual Works

Credit LineGift of an Anonymous Donor

Terms

Object number91.0294

On View

On view

Collections

Art of North America

DescriptionDeborah Butterfield has devoted her career to producing expressive sculptural representations of horses in various media. Her singular artistic vision is focused on the physical and spiritual essence of the horse; throughout her year career, she has interpreted that vision in a remarkable variety of materials, including clay, mud and sticks, scrap metal, steel, and bronze. Rex, which is constructed of orange-colored steel strips, is a portrait of one of the artist's favorite horses. Made expressly for the Lowe, this work is a fine example of Deborah Butterfield's more recent sculptural style, characterized by an open configuration and linear, draftsman-like quality. Butterfield was born and trained in California. She began sculpting horses in the early 1970s, creating realistic works in plaster. Several years later, having tired of realism, she turned to the unlikely medium of mud and sticks. Around 1980 she abandoned natural materials and hands-on modeling for found steel, iron, and painted metal scraps, which she partially reshapes through a process that includes welding, cutting, and hammering. Butterfield has said that the proportions of her horse sculptures are directly related to her own body's proportions, so that in the larger sense, each sculpture is a kind of personal portrait.
Visual Description

A life-sized sculpture of a horse, minimally rendered with welded strips of found steel. The horse stands on thin legs, front hooves and back hooves parallel, head down, tail tucked under the rump. The strips of curved steel creating the animal’s long neck, slightly swayed back, and round rump form the literal backbone of the sculpture. Most of the remaining strips of steel are straight and have been welded together at sharp, irregular angles. In the animal’s head, neck, and back, the welded strips of bent, rust-colored steel provide the outline of the sculpture. In the barrel-chested body, the open web of straight, welded strips resembles a jumbled skeleton.