Bisa Butler
[9][2][4][5][7] She is known for her vibrant, quilted portraits celebrating Black life, portraying both everyday people and notable historical figures.
[22] Butler majored in fine art and graduated cum laude from Howard University, where she studied the work of Romare Bearden, attended lectures by prominent black artists such as Lois Mailou Jones, and studied under lecturers such as Elizabeth Catlett, Jeff Donaldson, and Ernie Barnes.
[30] Using the Kool-Aid colors of the Black Power art movement also serves to capture the "soul and energy" of the person Butler is depicting.
The artist collective's bright, colorful aesthetic and aim to create positive representations of Black Americans can be found in Butler's body of work, as well.
[11] Her quilts often feature portraits of famous figures in Black history, such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jackie Robinson, Frederick Douglass, and Josephine Baker.
[14] Along with her portraits of notable figures, Butler also creates pieces featuring everyday, unknown African American subjects that she bases on found photographs.
"[12] Her work, Harlem Hellfighters, was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the Renwick Gallery's 50th Anniversary Campaign.
[31] The photograph Butler used for this work is a 1919 black and white photograph of the 369th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, from World War I. Butler says, "My work is to continue to lift them up in history so they can be seen in public spaces, where their heroic sacrifices become part of the American quest to fight against oppression and for freedom.
"[31] In 2021, the Pérez Art Museum Miami acquired her work Black is King as part of the institution's new acquisitions initiative.
[40] In February 2019, her work was included along with that of Romare Bearden in The Art of Jazz, a Black History Month exhibition in Morristown, New Jersey.
It was scheduled to first open at the Katonah Museum of Art from March 15 to June 14, 2020; however, after temporarily closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition was extended to October 4, 2020.
[47] From November 17, 2022 to March 12, 2023, the Skirball Cultural Center presented Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories, an exhibition with works by more than forty artists, including Bisa Butler.
