I Am Not Your Negro
I Am Not Your Negro
Artist
Bisa Butler
(born 1973)
Date2019
MediumQuilted and appliquéd cotton, wool, and chiffon
Dimensions77 3/4 × 58 3/4 in. (197.5 × 149.2 cm)
ClassificationsTextile
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2021.8
Signedl.l., stitched: Bisa Butler
Accession number
2021.8
On View
Not on viewLabel TextBisa Butler’s I Am Not Your Negro borrows its title from a 2016 documentary based on an unfinished memoir by James Baldwin. The work is a tribute to Black intellectuals and expatriates but uses Dorothea Lange’s Depression-era photo, Negro in Greenville, Mississippi as a reference. Butler’s work presents the sitter as a confident and cosmopolitan African American abroad by transforming his patched clothes into garments decorated with references to travel.
No soy tu negro, de Bisa Butler toma prestado su título de un documental de 2016 basado en unas memorias sin terminar de James Baldwin. La obra es un homenaje a los intelectuales y expatriados negros, pero utiliza como referencia la fotografía de la Era de la Depresión de Dorothea Lange, Negro en Greenville, Mississippi. La obra de Butler presenta al modelo como un afroestadounidense cosmopolita seguro de sí mismo en el extranjero, transformando su ropa remendada en prendas decoradas con figuras referentes a viajar.
