David Butler: 1898-1997, lived and worked in Patterson, Louisiana

One of the first recognized stars of Southern African-American yard art, David Butler installed a fantastic tin zoological environment on and outside his home in Patterson, Louisiana, over the course of several decades. Butler turned to art in middle age, after a work-related injury at a sawmill.

But he managed to bridge his private environment and the broader art world, first rising to prominence with the landmark 1982 exhibition "Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980" at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC. Only a year later, his yard environment was dismantled when illness required him to move in with family, and Butler's prolific and site-specific practice ...