Camille Billops

Camille Josephine Billops (August 12, 1933 – June 1, 2019) was an African-American sculptor, filmmaker, archivist, printmaker, and educator.

Early life and education Billops was born in Los Angeles, California, to parents Alma Gilmore, originally from South Carolina, and Luscious Billops, originally from Texas. Her mother was a seamstress, and her father a cook. They worked "in service" for a Beverly Hills family, enabling them to provide her with a private secondary education at a Catholic school. As a young girl, she painted her bow and arrow set and dolls. She traced the beginnings of her art to her parents' creativity in cooking and dressmaking.

Billops graduated in 1960 from Los Angeles State College, where she majored in education for physically handicapped children. She obtained her B.A. degree from California State University and her M.F.A. degree from City College of New York in 1975.

Work Visual art Billops's primary visual art medium was sculpture. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Jersey City Museum and the Museum of Drawers, Bern, Switzerland. Her first exhibition was at Gallerie Akhenaton, where she displayed ceramic pots and sculptures. She later experimented with photography, printmaking, and painting. In 1982, she made Suzanne, Suzanne, a film about her niece and her recovery from a heroin addiction.

Her other film credits include Older Women and Love in 1987, The KKK Boutique Ain’t Just Rednecks (1994), Take Your Bags (1998) and A String of Pearls (2002). She produced all of her films with her husband and their film company, Mom and Pop Productions. Older Women and Love is based on a love affair of Billops's aunt.

Hatch-Billops Collection In 1968, the Hatch-Billops Collection began after Billops met James Hatch, a professor of theater at UCLA, through Billops's stepsister, Josie Mae Dotson, who was Hatch's student. Once housed in a loft in Lower Manhattan, the Collection is now largely located at the Camille Billops and James V. Hatch archives at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Library at Emory University. To date, more than 400 interviews have been recorded. Artist and Influence is also part of the collection at Emory.

Collaborative work Billops collaborated with photographer James Van Der Zee and poet, scholar, and playwright Owen Dodson on The Harlem Book of the Dead, which was published in 1978 with an introduction by Toni Morrison. She also published a book, "The Art of Remembering", with Hatch.

SoHo loft In the early 1980s, Billops and Hatch purchased a 4,000-square foot loft in SoHo, Manhattan and expanded it to include a studio, office and library open to students of City College of New York. She stated, "We invited everybody here: friends, students and white folks, gallerists and curators. We sold art right off our walls. I stopped begging a long time ago when I discovered I could sell art without having to kiss booty.” of Camille was her wearing an outfit that had beads clicking in her braids, feathers, a man's hat on, and black-rimmed eyes. The black rimmed eyes were similar to the way women rimmed their eyes in ancient Egypt. She also had a hairy upper lip and wore Afro-Asian necklaces. Being a performer, her style was noticed.

Awards and honors 1963: Fellowship from Huntington Hardford Foundation 1975: MacDowell Colony Fellowship 2016: Still Raising Hell: The Art, Activism, and Archives of Camille Billops and James V. Hatch, Atlanta, Georgia. 1997: Inside the Minstrel Mask, Noel Fine Art Acquisitions, Charlotte, North Carolina 1991: Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Oakland, California 1990: Clark College, Atlanta, Georgia 1986: Calkins Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York 1983: American Center, Karachi, Pakistan; Pescadores Hsien Library, Makung, Republic of China 1980: Buchandlung Welt, Hamburg, Germany 1997: Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey 1973: Ornette Coleman's Artist House, New York, New York 1965: Gallerie Akhenaton, Cairo, Egypt