Bisa Butler tells stories of people of African descent through her quilted portraits
American artist Bisa Butler seamlessly blends fabrics, textures and precise stitching to create colorful quilts depicting "people of African descent." "Mobile Madonna" (2022), is based on an image taken by prominent African American documentary photographer Gordon Parks.
John Butler
Focussing on themes of courage and strength, Butler often commemorates iconic African American figures. This quilt, called "I Go To Prepare a Place For You," portrays American abolitionist Harriet Tubman, and is exhibited at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, D.C.
Bisa Butler
Butler often bases her works on black-and-white photos. The portrait of Tubman was based on a photograph taken in 1878, in New York.
Exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Butler's largest quilt to date is of the Harlem Hellfighters, an infantry regiment that spent more time on the frontlines than any other troops in World War I, but still faced discrimination at home.
Bisa Butler
The piece was based on this photo of the Hellfighters, taken in 1919.
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"Harlem Hellfighters" was a nickname of the 369th Infantry Regiment. Pictured in 1919, the regimental jazz band, with its famed bandleader Lieutenant James Reese Europe (left), played for vast crowds in Paris.
Underwood Archives/Getty Images
It took Butler 11 months to complete the Harlem Hellfighters quilt as she began her crafting process by spending hundreds of hours researching the backgrounds of each soldier in the photo, like Ed "Eagle Eye" Williams, pictured here.
Bisa Butler
Butler says she likes working from black and white photos, because it's easier for her to trace out patterns based on the highlights and shadows, and they allow her to be more creative in her use of fabrics and color, like in this piece, inspired by photo of a West African Zouave soldier in Paris, in 1915. "The Zouaves were (one) of the most decorated units of the French army who came from north, west and East African French colonies," Butler wrote on Instagram. "The Zouaves were used on the front lines of WWI and suffered heavy casualties in France while still being under colonial oppression at home."
Bisa Butler
Butler was a formally trained painter but made the switch to quilted portraits during her master's degree in 2003. She realized that using fabrics for portraits could not only communicate a subject's appearance but also deeper layers of their life experiences and identity. This piece shows Harriet Tubman in her later years.
Bisa Butler
Every fabric plays a part in narrating the subject's story. Each cloth is carefully selected and layered using a technique called appliqué, a process that can take Butler up to 200 hours for each figure.
Jill Feyer
Butler uses many African fabrics in her pieces as a way to link the African diaspora and the subjects in her quilts to the African continent. A traditional kente cloth, sourced from her father's homeland of Ghana, was used for "If I Ruled The World, Imagine that; Ella II." In the image of seven-year-old Ella, a blue flowery traditional cloth called "Obaapa," meaning "good woman," is used for her jacket. It alludes to Ella's African roots and "speaks to the future of this young girl," according to Butler.
Bisa Butler
This quilted portrait is of the late African American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who Butler regards as an inspiration.
