Jack Butler (artist)
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April 23, 1937
Jack Butler | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kenneth John Butler April 23, 1937 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | December 30, 2024 (aged 87) |
| Education | BFA, MFA, MA |
| Alma mater | Carnegie Mellon University, University of Illinois, University of Western Ontario |
| Known for | Visual Artist |
| Spouse | Sheila Butler |
| Website | http://fatemaps.ca |
Jack Butler (April 23, 1937 – 30 December 2024) was an American-Canadian visual artist. His work is in public and private collections including the National Gallery of Canada.[1][2][3] He was a founding member of Sanavik Inuit Cooperative, Baker Lake, Nunavut.[3] He was a medical model builder and published researcher in human development. He taught at Carnegie Mellon University, at the Banff Centre, the University of Manitoba, and in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario.[4] Butler died on December 30, 2024, at the age of 87.[5]
Jack Butler was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1937. As a teenager, Butler worked as an illustrator for pathologist Dr Louis Goodman at Southside Hospital in Pittsburgh, recording congenital anomalies which the pathologist found during the course of his work.[6] Butler studied at Carnegie Institute of Technology and received his undergraduate degree, a BFA (painting and printmaking) in 1960. In 1962, Butler completed a Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.[citation needed]
In 1969, Butler had his first major public exhibition. The exhibition, held at Lee Nordness Gallery in New York, included a print that would be included in H.W. Janson's History of Art editions from 1969 to 1985.[7] The print depicted a flattened female torso and was "indexical as opposed to formal"; Butler wrote that this "allied my work with the development of the conceptual-art movement".[8]
Baker Lake
In 1969, Butler and his wife Sheila Butler arrived in Baker Lake, Northwest Territories. Butler was the Arts and Crafts officer for the Northwest Territories and together with Sheila Butler they engaged and supported Inuit artists. The Butlers initiated a printmaking project, sewing projects and a shop.[9][10] Butler worked to help preserve Inuit myths and legends by encouraging Inuit artists, such as Victoria Mamnguqsualuk, to create drawings and prints that incorporated those narratives.[11]
When the Butlers first arrived, they faced staunch skepticism about their programs.[12] The local clothing factory had recently closed and many of the established printmakers had left.[13] The community had already seen a series of unsuccessful government programs and arts and crafts officers.[12] In Richard Crandall's book, Inuit Art: A History, he noted that the Inuit community, prior to the Butler's arrival, "had spent thousands of hours on printmaking projects only to see them fail".[12] Nonetheless, the Butler's printmaking project began in the craft centre and offered a wage of $1.25 to $2.00 per hour for those willing to study printmaking.[12] In addition to hourly wages, artists were paid for final editions of prints. By 1970, the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council approved the sale of a collection of 31 prints and requested a special exhibition for the spring and the program expanded adding two more positions.[12] Eventually, the Butlers, along with the printshop manager Ruby Arngna’naaq, and members of the community founded the Sanavik Co-operative (Inuit for Open Studio)) whose mission was to "foster and coordinate the art activities in the settlement, and to be able to contract for other community services."[9]
