Reexamining Material Hierarchies: Bisa Butler's Portrait Quilts

This paper will address the critical reception of the quilts made by women of Gee’s Bend and argue that many of the responses to these quilts, although at times layered, reiterate and thereby reinforce, material hierarchies established within Western art history, particularly in the twentieth century through the work of Clement Greenberg. The term “decorative” in particular remains a pejorative classification, frequently used to dismiss work deemed “feminine” or tied to women’s domestic labors. In a challenge to the hierarchical delineations of this critical framework, I will examine the work of Bisa Butler, a contemporary artist who makes appliqué portrait quilts that represent black subjects and refuse material disciplining to engage with painting, photography, textiles, and works on paper. Butler’s work, which features strikingly representational and illusionistic portraits of West Africans and African Americans, does not permit the viewer to ignore issues of race and gender nor the complex materiality of her work. Butler transforms the quilt, often an object of comfort, into an empowering and challenging object. With The Safety Patrol she meticulously represents a group of seven school children. The young man in the center stands in front of his schoolmates with his arms outstretched in a protective, and potentially even sacrificial gesture. The quilt offers an imaginative glimpse into the complex and varied lives of children and reminds viewers that children, and black children especially, need to be seen, valued, and protected. Butler’s work demands recognition for the complexity of her subjects as well as her materials.