Great Falls, Montana January 31, 2024—Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art presents Freeman Butts, an exhibition organized by the Danforth Art Museum, and traveling throughout Montana via the auspices of the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association (MAGDA). This exhibition features thirteen figurative paintings from the artist’s Late Period between 1982 and 1994. The exhibition opens to the public on February 9, 2024. Special programming includes a discussion with Storrs Bishop, Director of the Danforth Museum of Art on March 7, 2024.
Butts resided in Livingston during the 1990s, and it has been said he can be credited with helping bring contemporary art to Montana. Butts’ artistic legacy is vast and includes drawings, watercolors, paintings, and sculpture. His paintings are characterized by expressive brushwork and fluid, sensuous line that can be seen in the dozen pieces on display in this exhibition.
Freeman Butts’ artistic legacy is vast. It consists of thousands of drawings, watercolors, and acrylic paintings on paper, ceramic and bronze sculpture, found object assemblages, and oil and acrylic paintings on canvas.
Butts attended Hollywood Art School on the GI bill and had a successful career as an artist that spanned half a century, from the late 1940s through the 1990s.
A big man with an even larger personality, Butts is known for expressive paintings that integrate figure and landscape using vigorous brushwork and fluid, sensuous line. Butts preferred to paint his canvas using house painting brushes and his work is characterized by looseness, gestural marks, and bold color. Much like Monet, whom he admired, Butts worked in phases. Whether it was hay bales and silos, or his ubiquitous human figures, he painted energetically and tirelessly, repeatedly cycling through familiar subjects. Though he worked quickly and frenetically, Butts never reworked a canvas believing it would be better to fail and throw it out than edit. Butts’ work evolved and matured through the decades and as a body of work it reflects a broad range of interests and influences.
Butts moved to Montana in 1974 and to Livingston in 1993. He was known to be easygoing and calm with five children and cats constantly interrupting him at the studio. Freeman Butts’ giant stature was only matched by his humor, and gentle nature. His work can be found in many private collections as well as in the permanent collections of a number of museums across the state of Montana.
Related Exhibition Events for Freeman Butts: Late Work 1982-1994
Collecting Freeman Butts: The Beginnings of the Danforth Museum of Art’s Collection
Thursday, March 7th, 2024 | 5:30 – 7:30pm
A Discussion with Storrs Bishop, Executive Director, The Danforth Museum of Art in Livingston, Montana. Followed by a conversation and open discussion about collecting non-western American art in the rural west between Storrs Bishop and Nicole Maria Evans, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art.
Freeman Butts: Late Work 1982-1994 at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art is supported by the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association(MAGDA), a state-wide service organization for non-profit museums& galleries, and supported in part by grants from the Montana Arts Council, a state agency funded by the State of Montana; coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana’s Cultural and Aesthetic Projects Trust Fund; and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by museum members and the citizens of Cascade County, Davidson Family Foundation, D.A. Davidson, Horizon Credit Union, an anonymous donor, and Kelly’s Signs & Design.
For more information, contact Nicole Maria Evans, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, at nicole@the-square.org; (406)727-8255.
Author: Staff
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