NEWS RELEASE ARCHIVES
The
Quilts of Gee's Bend
Highly Anticipated Exhibition Celebrates Multi-Generational
Artistry of One Community in Southern Alabama
October 15, 2004 through January 2, 2005
America Irby (American, 1916-1993) |
Women in the remote isolated community of
Gee’s Bend, Alabama engaged in the traditional art of quilting for
generations, motivated by the need to keep their families warm. The
Quilts of Gee’s Bend, opening October 15, 2004 at the Chrysler
Museum of Art, features 70 quilts by 46 African-American quilters and
celebrates these unsung artists for their innovative use of materials
and bold command of design. Although the tradition of quiltmaking in Gee’s
Bend undoubtedly goes back centuries, the remarkable quilts that have
survived only date from the 1920s to the present.
The remote rural community known as Gee’s Bend occupies an area
of land some five miles across and seven miles deep inside a horseshoe-shaped
bend in the Alabama River. Geography has defined life in Gee’s Bend
over several generations. The first African Americans to settle in the
area were the slaves of John Gee, for whom the Bend is named. Cut off
on three sides from the outside world by the Alabama River, a ferry operated
sporadically until the 1960s. What nature created at the Bend, history
has reinforced. Isolation is only half the story of Gee’s Bend;
the other half is tradition. Because the inhabitants of Gee’s Bend
were left largely to themselves for nearly 100 years after the end of
the Civil War in 1865, many of the community’s traditions and folkways
survived virtually unchanged well into the 20th century. Quilting is one
of the most important of these traditions.
Rachel Carey George |
The quilts in the exhibition represent
four generations of artists who took fabric from their everyday lives—corduroy,
denim, cotton sheets, and well-worn clothing—and fashioned them
into compositions that more closely resemble modernist abstract paintings
than familiar quilt patterns. The women learned the craft from their mothers
or grandmothers but the emphasis was always on individuality and innovation.
Quilters made the tops by themselves and occasionally got together for
the quilting. Most of the quilts in the exhibition are of the type known
as piece, strip, or patchwork.
This traveling exhibition marks the first time these stunning quilts have
been seen in a public forum. The exhibition has been shown to critical
acclaim at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., at the Whitney
Museum of American Art, New York, and the Milwaukee Art Museum.
The Quilts of Gee’s Bend
is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and
The Tinwood Alliance of Atlanta.
# # #
For general information, please call (757) 664-6200. For media information, please contact the Public Relations Department at (757) 333-6295 or publicrelations@chrysler.org.
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