Jan Butterfield

Jan Butterfield (1937-2000) was an American art writer, teacher and critic. She wrote extensively on twentieth century installation and craft artists, focused on those who worked in California and the American West.

Early life and education Butterfield was born Jan Van Alstine in 1937 in Santa Monica, California. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduated with a degree in Theater Arts.

In 1993, Butterfield's book The Art of Light and Space was published by Abbefield Press. Based on more than two decades of research, it focused on the Light and Space art movement. A "profusely illustrated, entrancing survey," it investigated "an art that takes shape through the viewer's directed perception." The book profiled Robert Irwin James Turrell, Larry Bell, Maria Nordman, Douglas Wheeler, Bruce Nauman, Eric Orr, DeWain Valentine, Susan Kaiser Vogel, and Hap Tivey.

Her archives are housed at the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.

Personal life Butterfield was married twice. Her second husband, Henry Hopkins, served as the Museum Director at LACMA, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She died in 2000 after an extended illness.

Works Jan Butterfield, Jim McHugh The Art of Light and Space, Abbeville Press, 1996, Robert Hudson, Allan Frumkin Gallery, 1976