

Her mother, from New Orleans, was raised in Morocco. So this was the quilt that I made in a way to reinforce to myself that the kids will be fine.ĬORLEY: Like a painter, Butler selects her palette, a palette that consists of fabrics, many from Ghana, her father's homeland, or other African countries. He even has on a little cap, like he's an officer. The young boy in charge, holding a schoolmate's back from crossing the street, wears a Nigerian batik print shirt.ī BUTLER: He's looking down his eyes at us.

The life-sized figures pulsate with their own individual vibrant hues. But it's the Black diaspora family.ĬORLEY: It's a celebration of some family members well-known in their time, others just ordinary folk often overlooked, all portrayed in a kaleidoscope of colors, many of the works based on archival photos from the 1930s and '40s, like Butler's "Safety Patrol." The exhibit's opening quilt is her version of the 1947 photo of seven school children taken by preeminent African American photographer Charles "Teenie" Harris.ī BUTLER: Somehow I feel like they're calling out to me.ĬORLEY: She worked on the quilt during her last year of teaching art to high schoolers. Now it's home to the quilted portraits of contemporary American artist Bisa Butler.īISA BUTLER: I describe my artwork as a quilted photo album of a Black family. Two massive, colorful banners frame a window at the front of a gallery that's usually the home of European paintings and sculptures of earlier centuries. Her first solo museum exhibit is on display now in Chicago, and NPR's Cheryl Corley got a look.ĬHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: Climbing up a grand staircase at the Art Institute of Chicago, it's clear there's something decidedly different going on. Some art watchers say her Technicolor portraits of Black people are transforming the entire medium of quilt-making. You may have to select a menu option or click a button.Bisa Butler is an artist who makes quilts that are so finely detailed they look like paintings.

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