A strong work of art does not reveal itself all at once, but rather in increments, through various means and contexts. Such is the case for Deborah Butterfield’s Three Sorrows.
For a 2019 exhibition, the OJAC partnered with the TIA Collection in Santa Fe, NM, to pair and juxtapose works from the museum’s permanent collection with works from the private collection. While selecting works for Allied: The Tia and OJAC Collections, it was obvious that the TIA’s Butterfield work would be an impactful installation for our visitors at some point, though the exact time to do so was left unresolved. The superficial reasons for its display were obvious—the region of Texas where the Old Jail Art Center is located provides perfect context for the primary subject of the installation. The horse has been, and is, an important part of the history of our region—an invaluable asset to early European explorers, Vaqueros, Comanches, Anglo settlers, and modern cowboys. What better way to provide visitors a pathway into the deeper content offered by this work?
The appropriate time and context became apparent while curating The Ruby Portfolio— a 2020 permanent collection exhibition celebrating the OJAC’s 40th anniversary. In the museum’s humble beginning, a sizable number of ancient Chinese tomb figures and Japanese porcelains were gifted by two of the founders. These, along with modern and contemporary American and European works, make up the eclectic core collection. It became clear that Three Sorrows, installed in an adjacent gallery, would be a subtle yet engaging reference to the eastern and western cultures represented in the core collection.
Though significant, these justifications for borrowing and exhibiting the work were secondary to the certainty that Three Sorrows would offer a powerful, emotional, and thoughtful experience for visitors to our institution.
Patrick Kelly
Executive Director and Curator
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