Bisa Butler: Portraits at Katonah Museum of Art
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
cotton, wool, and chiffon, quilted and appliquéd, 2019
I have started this review seven times now and I’m starting to wonder if I actually possess the vocabulary to properly explain my love and admiration for Bisa Butler’s fabric art.
I first saw one of Butler’s pieces on my instagram feed and I remember thinking something along the lines of ‘oh that’s a great painting’, then I read the caption and saw the words: there is zero paint on this artwork, it’s 100% fabric, I immediately zoomed in to get a better look and honestly, my mind was blown.
How? How is she able to make this art without paint? How did she get the shadows, the angles, how was she possibly able to manipulate fabric like that?
The Equestrian, 2019, cotton, wool and silk, quilted and appliquéd
The woman presented here as a self-confident and immaculately dressed equestrian has been identified as Selika Lazevski who was captured in a small series of photographs taken in Paris at the studio of Paul Nadar in 1891. Little to no information has come to light about Selika beyond her role as a performer of dressage at the Nouveau Cirque in Paris.
The sleeves of Selika’s dress, made from fabric printed with aeroplanes and international clocks, although anachronistic in their reference to air travel, still effectively cultivate the air of a woman worldly and well-travelled. To reinforce this sensibility, Butler casts aside the conventional park setting that served as a backdrop in the studio photographs and instead places Selika in front of the Taj Mahal.
Four Little Girls, September 15, 1963
cotton, silk and lace, 2018
The title of this work refers to the killing of four African American girls by members of the Ku Klux Klan who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, a meeting place for civil rights leaders. The bombing was described by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetuated by humanity.”
Butler accurately renders the girls’ faces - 14 year old Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, and 11 year old Carol Denise McNair - but depicts them as young and avoids any overt reference to the incident. She captures them as free spirits, twirling in their dresses and ready to go to church.
Each girl is attired in her own distinct colour, and Butler has paid particular attention to their expressions, building light and shadow into their facial features with layers of purples, pinks and blues. Instead of depicting the violent historical event, Butler uses lively colours and dynamic designs to memorialise the girls.
Seeing this astounding work on line is one thing, but being able to get up close and see it in real life is another experience entirely.
Filling both of the Katonah Museums main galleries, Butler’s art demands attention for many reasons. Firstly because of the layers, using fabric rather than paint means that there is so much texture, her people seem to jump out at you and I guess that they kind of are.
The Tea
cotton, silk, lace and netting, 2017
The Tea is based on a photograph taken on Easter Sunday outside the still-extant St. Edmund’s Episcopal. Church on the South Side of Chicago by Russell Lee in 1941.
Butler abstracts the original photograph’s background and brings the women to the fore as poised and distinct individuals. Her addition of rich, striking colours and patterns help characterise them as part of a thriving, Black middle-class in Chicago. The women’s shared comfort with one another and their intimate bond are suggested by the close circle they form as they spill ‘the tea’ - an African American term synonymous with gossip or hidden truth. Butler creates a beautiful moment of strong Black female friendship and community.
Next there is the subject matter, Butler creates work about African American history and Black identity, often using found vintage photographs as her inspiration. Butler gives her subjects power. They aren’t apologetic, they aren’t keeping their heads down, they are right there in our faces, looking us right in the eye. Which doesn’t sound like it would need mentioning but it’s actually something that I’ve (finally) noticed isn’t often the case with Black subjects in paintings by white artists.
Butler is also addressing events and people from history that are rarely seen in text books, made into films or really acknowledged at all.
The fabric that Butler uses is also an important part of her work, she uses a lot of Kente cloth, which is the national cloth of Ghana (where Butler’s ancestors are from) and was originally associated with royalty.
Black Star Family, first class tickets to Liberia
cotton, silk and denim, 2018
Butler imagines this family as a sophisticated, wealthy, early 20th century family about to embark on a trip to the African nation of Liberia, which was first established in 1822 as a settlement for free-born and previously enslaved Black Americans,
She situates her subjects within the historical Back-to-Africa movement spearheaded by Marcus Garvey, who believed emancipation was only possible through self-governance in Liberia and sought to repatriate individuals of the Black diaspora to the continent through the Black Star Line ship.
Butler encodes meaning into the piece because the Ghanaian flag, which consists of the Pan-African colours; red, gold and green, features a black star in its centre. This gesture is thought to be an homage to the shipping line and also a reference to Ghana’s status as the first independent African nation of the 20th century.
This life-sized family pictured in Butler’s quilt is exquisitely dressed to make its trip to ultimate freedom, a fact that is signified by the father’s jacket, embellished with the photographic portrait of South Africa anti-apartheid leader, Nelson Mandela.
There is also a lot to consider here in terms of quilting as an art form. Books and essays have been written about how racism and sexism has meant that quilt making has been repeatedly overlooked and dismissed as art. It seems to be a conversation that people are finally having and I’m all for it. I’ve tried quilting, even the basics are incredibly time-consuming and difficult. The artists creating beautiful quilts should be recognised and celebrated properly.
Family
cotton, organza, chiffon, lace and netting, 2017
Butler based ‘Family’ on a black and white photograph from 1937 that shows her grandparents on their wedding day. Though the couple had ten children, Butler decided to depict only one here; her Aunt Walda.
Butler’s grandmother was a student at Xavier University of Louisiana, where she met and subsequently married her husband, a college professor. The two left New Orleans before the outbreak of World War II, and Bisa’s grandfather completed his doctorate in Belgium, where Walda was born. In 1939 war-stranded American civilians were evacuated from Belgium, and Bisa’s grandmother travelled alone on the Clyde-Mallory liner Iroquois. As the only African American on the ship, Butler’s grandmother had a cabin to herself because the Irish and English women refused to share a berth with a Black person.
Bisa Butler: Portraits is on display at Katonah Museum of Art until 4th October 2020. The exhibit will then be travelling to The Art Institute of Chicago where it will be available to view from 17th December 2020 to 18th April 2021.