Advanced Search

Search Stories

Go

Subjects A to Z

Advanced Search

A River Runs Through It

For Blooming painter James Butler, bridges and tunnels and levees and locks are no match for the awe-inspiring greatness of the Mississippi River.

Butler spent eight years chronicling the waterway from the Minnesota headwaters at Lake Itasca to the mouth of the Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico. Through his panoramic canvasses, Butler shows the impact humans have had on the river, walling it up, damming it and polluting it.

But his paintings also show how humans are sometimes humbled by the overwhelming power of the river, when floods destroy communities, sweeping away houses and livelihoods. And in painting the river's grandness there is also a hint of hope that the grease and dirt spewed from our cities can also be washed clean in the river's infinite flow.

After the Hurricane Katrina tragedy, Butler traveled south to the Gulf of Mexico to volunteer his help and once again chronicle in paint the irrepressible and sometimes tragic force of nature.

Related Links

See the work that poet B.J. Elsner and photographer Jewel Gwaltney created in response to the disastrous Mississippi River flood of 1993.

Explore video/image gallery

Related Video

Click to view video

 View Video Clip

Explore the Mississippi River with James Butler and his panoramic paintings.

Click to view video

 View Video Clip

Listen as painter James Butler contemplates one of his favorite subjects, the Mississippi River, and its future.

 

Related Podcasts

Painting Podcast

Vis. Arts Podcast

 

Related Images

Click to view image

view image View Larger Image

James Butler stands in front of his 5 by 15 foot painting, "At Shining Brow," now part of Northwestern University Hospital's collection.

Click to view image

view image View Larger Image

The Falls of Saint Anthony, 1997

Click to view image

view image View Larger Image

Power Plant/Saint Paul, 1999

Click to view image

view image View Larger Image

Mississippi River Lock and Dam #11, 1998

Click to view image

view image View Larger Image

The Crescent City, 1998

Click to view image

view image View Larger Image

Threshold, 1991

Click to view image

view image View Larger Image

Latsch Island Boathomes, 1997

 

Thanks To Our Sponsors
Contact Us Site Map Pressroom WTTW Digital Archives Production Services Corporate Sponsorship PBS 98.7WFMT

Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

©2016 WWCI

WTTW Arts - View Story ImageWTTW Arts - Select Your BandwidthWTTW Arts - View Story ExcerptWTTW Arts - Listen to Audio ClipAdvanced SearchStory DetailContact UsSite MapPressroomWTTW Digital ArchivesProduction ServicesCorporate SponsorshipHomeSchedulesProgramsWTTW KidsWTTW ArtsWTTW EventsSupport WTTWAbout UsMembers OnlyGeoffrey Baer Tours - Seven Wonders of ChicagoArchitect Robert A.M. Stern: Presence of the PastArchitect Michael Graves: A Grand TourArchitect Thomas Beeby10 Buildings that Changed AmericaCatholicismProhibitionAmerican Graduate