Skip to main content
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Rex
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Held by the artist. Non-exclusive license granted to Lowe Art Museum.

Rex

Artist/Maker (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
    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.
    On View
    On view
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Rycroft Painter and Shop
    ca. 525-510 BCE
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Louise Nevelson
    1955
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Artist Unknown
    early 20th century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Debbie Rose Myers
    1997
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Chryssa
    1963
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Artist Unknown
    1910-1920
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Nigeria, Igbo people
    20th century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Bowdoin Painter
    ca. 500-475 BCE
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Mario Carreño
    1941