Walter H. Williams, Girl with Butterflies #2, 1964, Woodcut Print, sheet: 22 7/8 in x 30 1/8 in; 58.1 cm x 76.5 cm; block: 20 in x 26 in; 50.8 cm x 66 cm, Five College Collections Database.
Description
This object is a large rectangular print, formatted in a landscape style. On a brownish-grey background, a young black girl crouches, holding flowers. Compositionally, the girl is the focus of the print. She wears a dress covered in magenta polka dots, and her upper body is turned to face the right side of the print. She is surrounded by a grass meadow and white and orangish-yellow flowers. There are many white flowers, but only three yellow flowers in the scene. She holds one of the orangey-yellow flowers in her left hand, presumably a black-eyed Susan, and in her right, she holds a white daisy. Her hair blows in the wind and is adorned with many white flowers. In the upper left corner of the print, there is a large white circle indicating a sun or moon. There are five white butterflies in the sky and one brown butterfly within the celestial circle. Six brown birds fly inside the circular shape. Furthermore, the print is dominated by neutral browns and greens, but still feels playful and lively. The magenta dress and yellow flowers provide pops of vivid color and work with the neutrals to create a calming yet whimsical atmosphere. Streaks of pink and orange are on the left side of the print, balancing out the scene as the magenta dress and orange flowers dominate the middle and right sides of the print.
Research and Analysis:
This artwork was created by Walter H. Williams, an African American artist who primarily practiced ceramics, printmaking, and painting. Williams was raised in New York City and often created artwork that commented on his surroundings growing up.1 While much of his art was centered around the cityscape, he also focused on young black children frolicking in rural landscapes, shown in the work we see today, creating a juxtaposition with his reality in the city. Williams’ work depicting these children also contains motifs such as playful colored multi-block prints, butterflies, and flowers. This work is a woodcut relief print on paper. The different colors and edges of the prints indicate that the artist created multiple different blocks and printed them on top of each other to create the final image. An estimated 7 blocks were used in this print, and it is hypothesized that the key block was not actually printed last, as is common practice in printmaking. This particular print is number 15 out of an edition of 210, a strikingly large edition.
This object was created in 1964 after Walters permanently moved to Denmark in search of a better life for himself and his wife.2 The couple was in an interracial marriage and had to pretend they were not together in public spaces to avoid backlash. However, he did return to the United States frequently for exhibitions of his art, as the move allowed many of his anxieties as a black man living in the U.S. to dissipate, enabling him to create more freely.3 After his move, he began to focus on creating woodcuts. Additionally, this artwork was created after Walters spent the four years leading up to his move to Denmark living in Mexico (1959–1963).4 At the time of this work creation, Walters had been through many life-altering events, most notably being drafted into the army at 22 years old and attending the Brooklyn Museum of Art upon his return from the war in France.5 Walters also revealed in an interview that he had suffered from depression, which may have informed his work.6 The context of his life path before creating this work is incredibly relevant, as it emphasizes the importance of his creating such peaceful and whimsical pieces after engaging in war.
Furthermore, Walters was married and had 3 children, two of whom were with his first wife from a marriage in his early 20s.7 This could indicate that the girl in the print is a representation of his children or even the general innocence of youth. A Danish reporter quoted Walters saying, “It is the picture that shows my soul and inner thoughts. When I am working, I feel a child’s naiveté.”8 This call to feel the naivete of a child could also be the result of Walters’s difficult upbringing. Walters was raised by an artistic single mother who left his harsh father. However, this arrangement was short-lived, as his mother passed away when Walters was only five.9 This led Walter to be raised by his “insensitive” father, causing him to become a lonely child who withdrew into his inner imaginative world.10 Despite this violence, Walters’s work can also be described as peacebuilding: he frequently depicts peace and prosperity for young black children as they are free to play in nature.11 This message was very well received by those around him, and this work was used for a UNICEF calendar.12 Beyond a career success, this work showed how peacebuilding organizations value art and their power for peace.
The Mead Museum of Art acquired this artwork as a gift from Rowell A. Schleicher (Class of 1921) and Susan T. Schleicher. Although there is not much else to be found on how they acquired this print, we know that Rowell was an alumnus of Amherst College. An obituary also reveals that Susan Schleicher was an actress on Broadway, suggesting an affinity for the arts. As a print, this artwork is not completely unique, as there are multiple original copies within the edition that was created. While the print held by Amherst College is its own, a copy was also purchased by the National Collection of Fine Arts of the Smithsonian Institution for the Executive Wing of the White House during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration in 1965.13
This artwork depicts wind, specifically a breeze. It captures a moment of blissful weather coming together to project a warm climate. The combination of a breeze, the creatures invited out by the weather, and blooming flowers depicts a spring or summer climate, both of which are full of innocence and create the perfect environment for a young black girl to play with the surrounding butterflies. The child is wearing a dress, indicating a warm day, but there is a breeze as well, which can be observed through contextual clues. We can assume that it is quite warm, as it would need to be warm enough to compensate for any chill that a breeze could bring.14 The wind that is depicted here is gentle despite the true power it holds for destruction.15,16 While we cannot see the wind itself, we see evidence of it, and it is undeniable. Tufts of pollen float in the air, and the girl’s hair is pushed back. The lighting in this print is almost filtered, warm, and golden. It is as if the sun is setting, and the viewer is looking through this kind of warm sunlight. This print is filled with symbolism for a new and innocent life. This symbolism is supported by many views of wind in the artwork as a light and airy presence.17 It is a moment most have experienced and cherished. Looking at this print, you can almost smell the sweet scent of flowers on the breeze, see the butterflies glide atop the breeze, and hear the grass rustle in the breeze.
Footnotes
- Eric Hanks, “A Child of the Universe . . . Speak Like a Child: Mildred Thompson and Walter Williams,” The International Review of African American Art 21, no. 2 (2007): 12–31. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Joylon Mitchell, “Peacebuilding Through the Visual Arts,” in Peacebuilding and the Arts, ed. Jolyon Mitchell, Giselle Vincett, Theodora Hawksley, and Hal Culbertson (Springer International Publishing, 2020), 35–70. ↩︎
- Hanks, “A Child of the Universe,” 12–31. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Iris Wenderholm, “Picturing the Wind: On the Interweaving of Religious, Mythological, and Natural History Knowledge in Dutch Copper Engraving (c. 1600),” in Annette Gerok-Reiter et al., Negotiated Religious Knowledge: Methods, Interactions, and Productive Rivalries in Pre-Modern Times (Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 201–268. ↩︎
- Mitchell, “Peacebuilding Through the Visual Arts,” 35–70. ↩︎
- Wenderholm, “Picturing the Wind.” ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎