Bisa Butler, All Power To The People, 2023

This giant 3-meter-high tapestry of a man in a flamboyant suit combines African American quilting traditions with contemporary designer labels. His gaze meets ours with poise and nobility.

Bisa Butler’s work starts with an image. Earlier on in her career, it was portraits of people she knew, but recently it’s been images of Black sitters she found in the National Archives. She’s drawn to those who dressed up for staged portraits, women with exuberant dresses or men with sharp suits. But, when she looked at how they’d been described — billed with labels such as “washerwoman,” as opposed to their name or other roles in life — she wanted to repurpose their images with a whole range of personalities.

Through her work, Butler honors and reconfigures the people in these pictures. She elevates them through dazzling colors in giant textile works that give them new life. In All Power To The People, we meet a local man who lived in the Bay Area in the 1960s and 70s. He was photographed by Leon Borensztein — an instructor from the San Francisco Art Institute known for taking pictures of people in the community.

Let’s now think about the multiple layers of lenses. An image taken through the lens of Borensztein, re-interpreted and responded to by Butler, who imagines the character through vivid textiles, beads, and more. She now invites us to add our interpretation, and for this person to enter our lives. What’s so powerful about Butler’s work is that even if we don’t have the name of this sitter, she keeps their image alive; as if to say, this person matters.

Let’s take a closer look at the details: the dignified gaze; the colors that make up his face in a painterly effect, an afro of glistening stitched beads. My eye is then drawn to his grip. Firm hands show him as in control of his image. And although the background doesn’t situate him in any specific place or time, I love how it vibrates and pulsates, keeping his image in motion.

To my mind, Butler’s works are just as much a portrait as they are a study in fiber, a medium that the artist has said everyone shares and understands. Think about what you’re wearing right now; how does that piece of clothing sit and feel on your body? Sewing has been in Butler’s DNA forever – and she comes from a lineage of women who made their own clothes.

This work came into the de Young museum collection in an unusual way. When Laura Camerlengo, curator in charge of costume and textile arts, expressed her desire to acquire the textile for the Museums’ collection, dozens of (mainly) women and Bay Area artists stepped forward to help. These benefactors included members of the Textile Arts Council, the support group of the Museums’ textile arts department. I love that it is of a figure from the San Francisco community, funded by the San Francisco community.