Back in Part 3 of my series on the Fort Worth museum district, I had a photo of a eerily beautiful sculpture of a horse. I said that I couldn’t locate any information about the sculpture, either near its physical location or on the website of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Yesterday I made a special trip back to the museum to find this poor horse’s name. Again I searched all around the sculpture. There was one tiny sign on a wall about 30 feet away, but when I approached it I found it said “STAFF ONLY.” So I went in the building to get the name of the work and the artist, as well as the material it was made of. The information desk was busy with groups buying tickets for the Warhol exhibit, but I spotted a nicely dressed, middle-aged woman standing to the side. I asked if she was a docent and she told me that she works at the museum. I explained what I was looking for and she seemed familiar with the sculpture. So familiar that she knew the name of the sculptor off the top of her head: Deborah Butterfield. But she had to go behind the information desk to get a catalog of the museum’s collection to find the name of the piece. It wasn’t there — neither was Deborah Butterfield. So she asked the woman sitting in front of a computer to help us. She didn’t find the answer on the Modern’s website, but instead via Google (I don’t know where).

Hina by Deborah Butterfield.
Bronze

After thanking the museum staff for their help (and shaking my head in disbelief), I went on about my other appointments for the day. After I got home a few hours later, it took only a few minutes to find many links to Deborah Butterfield and her marvelous horses. This one is, however, tells the fascinating story of Ms. Butterfield and her horses: http://artworksmagazine.com/2008/05/deborah-butterfield/

Her works are owned and have been exhibited worldwide. I wonder if she knows that Hina has been left to graze anonymously in an isolated corner of this museum.