Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments

Bisa Butler is a singular voice among a cadre of Black contemporary artists that engage figural representation to examine the beauty and complexity of Black experience. A painter by training, Butler employs a wide array of textiles as her “palette” and quilting as her medium. Her body of work draws largely on black and white archival photographs of Black American and other African diasporic people, which she translates into her own brightly colored interpretations using African and American fabrics to layer in stories based upon historical research. Through culturally-significant fabric choices and immense technical prowess, Butler brings her often unnamed subjects to life, creating lush and deeply empathetic portrayals of Black people.

This mid-career survey features nearly forty quilts by Butler, presented alongside works by her artistic influences and predecessors such as Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, and others, drawn from Smithsonian collections.  

A beautifully illustrated catalogue, published in association with Smithsonian Books, is forthcoming.  

Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments is organized by Dalila Scruggs, the Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art, and co-curated with Liz Andrews, executive director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, in close collaboration with the artist and with support from Maria R. Eipert, curatorial assistant.