Butterfly

Selma Burke was one of a few prominent African American sculptors to participate in the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Projects. Born in North Carolina, Burke took an interest in sculpture as a child when she collected and modeled clay from a river near her home. After moving to New York in 1935, Burke became involved in the Harlem Renaissance. She taught at the Harlem Community Center and earned her MFA at Columbia University in 1941. “Butterfly” represents Burke’s exploration of printmaking, an aspect of her career overshadowed by her sculpture. She created the print at the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia. Founded in 1975, the Brandywine Workshop soon after established an institute for offset lithography, a method that offered artists in residence the opportunity to explore, as demonstrated by “Butterfly,” hand-drawn imagery and luminous, multi-layered colors.