Learning, Unlearning, Relearning: Meditating on America’s Past and Present

Student Select: Art Acquisition Trip & Fund

"Both the African and the Western here: Michelangelo’s David and 'power figures' from a number of cultures connect to spiritual narratives. David from the Bible or Torah famously takes on the giant Goliath with his perfect and human sized male body with a slingshot. No doubt a parable of overcoming great adversity. Michelangelo renders David with adoration for the male body bringing the stylization of classical Greek sculpture to this biblical figure. The 'power figures' in many African cultures are said to be vessels for ancestors and male figures connect to aspects of the male role in a society or in family, virility, wisdom, physical strength, etc. So, these are very similar notions and ideas of masculinity that look very different, but one does not have supremacy over the other. Muhammad Ali's quote and title of this work is also about strength and wisdom in life as much as it is encapsulates his boxing strategy. For Black people it doubles as a lesson in navigating the world. For me, it's also another instance where cycles of nature and pollination are used as metaphors for resilience and grace under pressure. I make these contrasts to remind the viewer that we are more the same than different." -William Villalongo

Label from Art 348: Challenging Collecting and Exhibition Practices


William Villalongo’s "Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee" is a multimedia artwork that explores black masculinity, beauty, and power. The work is characterized by the dichotomy between African and Western conceptions of strength and masculinity; illustrated through the contrast between the African power figures and Michelangelo’s David that are arranged in a starburst at the center of the piece. The stylistic differences between these works show how values of beauty differ between cultures. Villalongo’s use of both Western and African mythological figures alludes to the gulf between perceptions and reality of black people in a Western context. In addition, it is important to note the difference in value typically placed on these two kinds of art: the statue of David is heralded as one of the most important pieces in the Western art historical canon, yet African statues have often been dubbed “primitive” by Western institutions. Below the starburst a fist clutches three-dimensional drinking gourds, referencing both the gourds used by enslaved people to drink water and the name for the Big Dipper constellation used by enslaved people seeking freedom while traveling along the underground railroad.



Cutouts in the velour paper and small collaged butterflies emanate from the central compositions forming a calming aura. The imagery is topped by a collaged boxing helmet. Together the butterflies, boxing gear, and the title of the work create an homage to Muhammad Ali. Villalongo believes that Ali’s famous saying, “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” is as much a lesson about navigating the world as it is about boxing. Villalongo is a black man exploring topics of black power and masculinity, two aspects of blackness that have been demonized as aggressive and violent by white society, but in a way that frames them as important pillars of black life and resilience. He seeks to fill in the “inherent and persistent fragility that surrounds black life” with symbols of healing and remembrance such as butterflies and African sculpture.

Villalongo earned his BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and his MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. His work has been sidely exhibited including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; the Studio Museum of Harlem, NY; and the Denver Art Museum, CO, among many others. He has been honored with several prestigious awards including a residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptor's Grant. Villalongo is the 2022 Jules Guerin & Harold M. English Rome Prize Fellow in Visual Art; this honor includes includes a 10-month residency at the American Academy in Rome. He is represented by Susan Inglett Gallery in New York, NY.