Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Willis is the mother of conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas. Her father was a photographer as well, and her close familial ties are apparent in works such as Daddy's Ties: The Tie Quilt II, and Progeny: Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas. Wilis' degrees include a B.F.A. in photography from Philadelphia College of Art in 1975; an M.F.A. in photography from Pratt Institute in 1979; an M.A. in art history from City College of New York in 1986; and a Ph.D. from the Cultural Studies Program of George Mason University in 2001.
Career
Willis was the curator of photographs and the prints/exhibition coordinator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library between 1980 and 1992, after which she became exhibitions curator at the Center for African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution for eight years. Between 2000 and 2001 she was Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professor in Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then joined the faculty of New York University. Interested in "historic and cultural documentation and preservation," she has published "some twenty books on African-American photographers and on the representation of blacks in photographic imagery." Among them are Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present, Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, and Black: A Celebration of a Culture. Also known as "Deb Willis," she survived a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2001. She was the curator of photographs and the prints/exhibition coordinator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library between 1980 and 1992. Willis co-produced the 2014 documentary film , which is based on her book Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present. In 2008, she organized the exhibition Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits for the National Museum of African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution.
Awards and honors
Willis has received numerous awards and honors, including:
As an artist and photographer, Willis is represented by Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in Miami and Charles Guice Contemporary in Berkeley, California. Her exhibitions have included:
"Progeny," Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, 2008. The exhibition traveled as "Progeny: Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas" in 2009 to New York and to Sacramento, California.
"Deborah Willis," Hughley Gallery & Objects, Atlanta, 1992, involving "small narrative quilts built around historical photographs, documents and family snapshots."
Willis is also a quilter, also incorporating photographic images into her pieces. Daddy's Ties: The Tie Quilt II from 1992, for example, is a fabric collage with added button, tie clips, and pins forming "a supple, irregularly shaped memorial." The work references multiple generations and genders, as it elicits memories of fathers teaching their sons, boys maturing into adult clothes and rituals, and women adjusting their husbands' knots. At the same time, however, the artist's cutting and reconfiguration of the ties raises the possibility that such nostalgic references might be outmoded or rejected. This multivalent collage "also memorializes black soldiers who fought in World War II," since Willis includes photos of soldiers on linen fabric collaged onto the tie fabric. Willis's focus on the African-American experience is evident in Tribute to the Hottentot Venus: Bustle, a fabric and photo linen collage in a triptych format. Small images of Saartjie Baartman, the so-called "Hottentot Venus," appear in the left and right sections together with pieced fabric silhouettes of her body. The central image in the triptych is of a late 19th-century dress with prominent bustle, its shape emphasizing the buttocks. Willis explains that her use of quilting as a technique "reminds us who we are and who and what our ancestors have been to us in the larger society." Her quilts have been included in the following exhibits and catalogs:
"Story Quilts: Photography and Beyond", Black Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1999, Curated by photographer and installation artist Pat Ward Williams, the exhibition showcased the works of three African-American artists—Willis, Kyra E. Hicks and Dorothy Taylor.
Tribute to the Hottentot Venus quilt, 1992.
Curated exhibitions
Exhibitions that Willis has curated include:
"Posing Beauty in African American Culture," which opened Fall 2009 at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and is currently a touring worldwide.
"Reflections in Black," Arts and Industries Building, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 2000, on African-American photography. The exhibition in whole or in part traveled widely in the U.S. between 2000 and 2003.
"Constructed Images: New Photography," which traveled between 1989 and 1992.
