[AC] Mead Art Museum at Amherst College; [HC] Hampshire College Art Gallery;
[HD] Historic Deerfield; [MH] Mount Holyoke College Art Museum; [MH SK] The Joseph Allen Skinner Museum at Mount Holyoke College; [SC] Smith College Museum of Art; [UM] University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMASS Amherst

Label Text:
Bisa Butler creates life-size depictions of black Americans composed solely of multi-layered fabric swatches and thread. Here, the tender gesture found in a 1930s photograph of a well-dressed man and woman inspired Butler to capture the couple’s self-assured pose. Riffing off the iconic styles and everyday experiences of black Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries, the artist adorns this couple in layers of vibrant African wax-print fabrics, which both amplify and contrast with their stylish period attire. Set against a bold red textile with large hot pink flowers, the formal outfits, gold rings, and background flowers suggest that this couple is recently married. The title Broom Jumpers, references the historic custom of black American couples literally jumping over a broom to mark the end of a wedding ceremony, a tradition initiated when it was illegal in the United States for two enslaved individuals to be legally wed.

Keywords/Tags:
quilts; dress accessories; African American; birds; ceremonies; devotion; diaspora; families; fashion; marriage; multiculturalism; portraits; race; romances; wealth; women

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2019.37

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.