Deborah Willis (artist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Deborah Willis
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| Born | February 5, 1948 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Known for | photography, curator, author, art historian, educator |
| Children | Hank Willis Thomas |
Deborah Willis, born on February 5, 1948, is an amazing African-American artist. She is also a photographer, someone who organizes photo exhibits (a curator), a historian who studies photos, an author, and a teacher. She won a special award called the MacArthur Fellowship in 2000, which is a big honor. Today, she is a Professor and leads the Photography and Imaging Department at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In 2024, she became a member of the American Philosophical Society.
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Growing Up and Learning
Deborah Willis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 5, 1948. Her parents were Ruth and Thomas Willis. Deborah is the mother of another famous artist, Hank Willis Thomas. Her father was also a photographer. Their close family bond shows up in some of her art, like Daddy's Ties: The Tie Quilt II from 1992.
Deborah Willis went to several colleges to study art and history. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in photography from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1975. She then got a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in photography from Pratt Institute in 1979. Later, she earned a Master of Arts (M.A.) in art history from City College of New York in 1986. Finally, she received her Ph.D. from George Mason University in 2001.
Deborah Willis's Career
Early in her career, Deborah Willis worked hard to find and celebrate photos taken by African Americans. She also wanted to show the beauty of the female body in her own art. With help from Richard Newman, she wrote her first book, Black Photographers, 1840-1940: an Illustrated Bio-bibliography (1985). This book featured over 300 photographers. She said that many of these photographers were about to throw away their work because it wasn't getting noticed.
To continue her goal of recognizing Black photographers, Deborah Willis released a second book. It was called An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black Photographers, 1940-1988 (1989). This book included many modern photographers, just as she had planned for her first book.
Working at Museums and Universities
From 1980 to 1992, Willis worked at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. There, she was the curator for photographs and helped organize exhibitions. After that, she became an exhibitions curator at the Center for African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution for eight years.
Between 2000 and 2001, she was a special visiting professor at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Then, she joined New York University as a professor of photography and imaging. She eventually became the head of that department at the Tisch School of Arts.
Books and Documentaries
Deborah Willis is very interested in "historic and cultural documentation and preservation." This means she loves to record and protect history and culture. She has published about twenty books about African-American photographers. Her books also show how Black people have been shown in photographs over time. Some of her famous books include:
- Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present (2002)
- Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present (2009)
- Black: A Celebration of a Culture (2014)
Willis also helped create the 2014 documentary film Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. This movie is based on her book Reflections in Black. In 2008, she organized an exhibition called Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits. This show was for the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution.
Her work was also part of the 2015 exhibition We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s at the Woodmere Art Museum.
Other Activities
Deborah Willis has also served on important juries. For example, she helped choose the winners of the Rome Prize for the 2023–24 year. This prize helps artists and scholars study in Rome.
Awards and Recognition
Deborah Willis has received many awards and honors for her amazing work. Some of them include:
- 2023 Don Tyson Prize for the Advancement of American Art
- 2023 Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Yale University
- 2020 Award for Outstanding Service to Photography and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society
- 2013-2014: Richard D. Cohen Fellow in African and African American Art, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University
- 2005: Guggenheim Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
- 2005: Fletcher Fellow, Fletcher Foundation
- 2003: Honorary doctorate, Maryland Institute College of Art
- 2000: MacArthur Fellow
- 1995: Infinity Award for Writing, International Center of Photography
Artistic Works and Exhibitions
As an artist and photographer, Deborah Willis has shown her work in many places. She was represented by galleries like Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in Miami and Charles Guice Contemporary in Berkeley, California. Her exhibitions have included:
- "Progeny," Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, 2008. This show later traveled as "Progeny: Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas" to New York and Sacramento, California in 2009.
- "Regarding Beauty", University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2003. This exhibition featured her photographs and special quilts.
- "Deborah Willis: Tied to Memory," Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, 2000.
- "Deborah Willis," Hughley Gallery & Objects, Atlanta, 1992. This show included "small narrative quilts" made with historical photos and family snapshots.
Deborah Willis is also a talented quilter. She often adds photographic images into her quilts. For example, her quilt Daddy's Ties: The Tie Quilt II from 1992 is a fabric collage. It includes buttons, tie clips, and pins. This quilt helps us remember family stories and how different generations connect. Willis explains that using quilting "reminds us who we are and who and what our ancestors have been to us."
Her quilts have been shown in these exhibits and catalogs:
- "Story Quilts: Photography and Beyond", Black Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1999. This show featured the works of three African-American artists: Willis, Kyra E. Hicks, and Dorothy Taylor.
Exhibitions Curated by Willis
Deborah Willis has also organized many important art exhibitions. Some of these include:
- "Posing Beauty in African American Culture." This show opened in Fall 2009 at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. It is still touring around the world.
- "Reflections in Black," Arts and Industries Building, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 2000. This exhibition was about African-American photography. It traveled to many places in the U.S. between 2000 and 2003.
- "Constructed Images: New Photography." This exhibition traveled between 1989 and 1992.
