Butterfly
Date1993
MediumOffset lithograph
DimensionsImage: 19 1/2 × 25 1/4 inches (49.5 × 64.1 cm)
Sheet: 19 1/2 × 25 1/4 inches (49.5 × 64.1 cm)
Matted: 32 × 40 inches (81.3 × 101.6 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase in honor of Courtney McNeil with Telfair Museum of Art acquisitions endowment funds.
Object number2021.7.2
Copyright© Estate of Selma Burke.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextArtist, scholar, and educator Selma Burke first gained recognition in the 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural and intellectual movement in New York City that promoted African American art, music, and literature. She achieved lasting fame as a portrait sculpture, capturing the likenesses of influential figures such as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Created two years before she passed in 1995, 'Butterfly' depicts a bright red and green butterfly among green leaves and blue flowers. It employs strong yet expressionistic lines, perhaps evocative of the way she used tools and her hands to mold and carve clay. Speaking to her own development as an artist and to the creative power of art, Burke recalled an early artistic epiphany from playing with riverbed clay near her childhood home: “One day, I was mixing the clay and I saw the imprint of my hands. I found that I could make something ... something that I alone had created.”
Text written for 'Contemporary Spotlight: New Acquisitions from the Brandywine Workshop' on view February 4 - May 1, 2022.
