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Frances Butler

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Frances C. Butler (born 1940 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American book artist and educator. Butler received her B.A. in History at the University of California, Berkeley in 1961, her M.A. in History at Stanford University in 1963, and a second M.A. in Design at UC Berkeley in 1966. She was a professor at UC Berkeley from 1968–70, and began teaching at UC Davis in 1970. She ran Goodstuffs Handprinted Fabric at 6221 Hollis St., in Emeryville, CA,[1] from 1973–79, and co-founded Poltroon Press with Alastair Johnston in 1975.[2]

Poltroon Press

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The Poltroon Press was one of several influential small presses in the San Francisco Bay Area, along with Rebis Press (Betsy Davids) and Five Trees Press (Kathleen Walkup, Jamie Robles, Cheryl Miller, etc.), which began their publishing and teaching activities during the mid-1970s.[3]

Minnesota Center for Book Arts

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Butler was the first visiting lecturer at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and "spoke of book arts in terms of re-defining tradition," challenging the center to adopt a more forward-thinking mission.[4]

Selected solo & group exhibitions

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Source:[2]

1981

  • Diagrams of Natural Energy, Meyer Breier Weiss, San Francisco
  • New Dryads (Are Ready for Your Call), Piater Brattinga Gallery, Amsterdam
  • International Artists' Books Show, Art Institute of Chicago

1979

  • Art for Wearing, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

1978

  • American Illustration: 1800 to the Present, Oakland Art Museum

1977

  • The Object as Poet, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

1976

  • California Design II, Pasadena Art Museum[5]

1975

  • Images of an Era—The American Poster 1945–75, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

1974

  • Clothing to be Seen, Museum of Contemporary Craft[5]

1973

  • Anatomy in Fabric, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
  • Pop Fabrics, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

1972

  • Block Brush and Stencil, Los Angeles County Museum of Art[5]

1970

  • Design Eleven, Pasadena Museum of Modern Art

Selected permanent collections

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Source:[2]

  • Victoria & Albert Museum, London[6]
  • The Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • The British Museum, London
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art[1]
  • Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York
  • National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Goodstuffs | LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org.
  2. ^ a b c Butler, Frances; Memorial Union Art Gallery (University of California, Davis) (1982). What things are & how they look. Poltroon Press. p. 16.
  3. ^ Johnston, Alastair (Fall 2008). "Off the Road". Journal of Artists Books (24): 36–42.
  4. ^ Pauly, Mary Jo (Fall 2003). "A Centering, Of Sorts: The Evolving Idea Of Minnesota Center For Book Arts". Journal of Artists Books (20): 11–13.
  5. ^ a b c Colored reading: the graphic art of Frances Butler. Berkeley, California: Lancaster--Miller Publishers. 1979. pp. [5]. ISBN 0895810115.
  6. ^ "Beast in the Jungle". February 2, 1973 – via Victoria & Albert Museum.