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:: September 10, 2006 Gee's Bend: Two Exhibits
Bryan and I took a trip to Houston last week to see the exhibition Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt at the Museum of Fine Arts. I am depressed that I missed the original Gee's Bend exhibition, The Art of the Quilt, now finishing its tour at the de Young in San Francisco. As the MFAH describes this second go-round: "the exhibition explores how the artists improvised on certain traditional motifs and traces the family quilting lineage of some master quilters."
The first room housed all log cabin/housetop variations, and was by far my favorite collection-within-the-collection. The one pictured above was included, but it's not representative of the room -- most of the quilts were riots of color and pattern. I loved seeing the vintage fabrics and how the women used them in their designs.
The next room contained work clothes quilts, the ones using the faded jeans and tattered shirts. Beyond that room there was a collection of corduroy quilts, all containing the surplus 70s avocado green corduroy that the quiters had after making pillow shams for Sears. This room was just beautiful and glowy, with all the fall colored designs gathered together. My fingers hurt from me just imagining what it took to hand-quilt through all these heavy fabrics. The next mini-collection showcased the women's non-traditional takes on traditional patterns. Then, there was a wall of really oddball quilts, such as the one made from sports jerseys (as seen in the big book) and a great one made from some fugly 80s pre-printed turkey doll/pillow fabric. The last room showed recent works by a few of the women, including the black, white, and red quilt by Mary Lee Bendolph that is featured on the cover of the exhibition catalog/book. These were bigger, bolder, more self-consciously artistic, but still very cool. At the end, there was the hands-on portion of the exhibit, a table with dozens of rolls of colored tape and little tiles of foamcore board with which to make tape-art. It was intended for kids, I think, but when we got to it it was surrounded by adults, all working intently and happily on their creations -- one older gentleman in particular was really into it and was overjoyed when a docent told him he was welcome to keep all the tiles that had been left behind by others. He taped them all together to make a big old awesome tape-art quilt.
The week prior I had gone to the Austin Museum of Art to see Mary Lee Bendolph: Gee's Bend Quilts and Beyond. This exhibition served as a nice appetizer for the big Houston exhibit. It also featured monoprints of the quilt designs that the quilters have been producing in conjunction with some arts collective. Best of all, the museum was showing a documentary, "The Sandman's Garden," about the artist Lonnie Holley, one delightfully crazy dude. In it, he offhandedly mentioned a piece of his called "Cold Titty Mama," and its follow-up, "Cold Titty Mama II." What can I say other than the phrase has brought much joy into the Kight household. Much has been written about Gee's Bend, I won't retread those things here. I have already been moved by the histories of the women and the circumstances from which the quilts arose. But seeing the quilts in person yielded surprises. First off, the quilts are messy! There is puckering and waving galore, bindings traveling off edges, and on the older ones, there are rips, tears, hand-piecing stiches bubbling out in all directions. I am not a conoisseur of hand-stitching, but the big stitches would earn the tsk-tsking of the anal old lady quilt crowd for sure. But what they screamed to me, as a quilter: just freaking do it. Go for it. In quilting there is an inordinate amount of rules and techniques and secrets that you must patiently pursue to achieve ever-greater precision and excellence. That all has its place, but that's not where the love or the art is. posted by in Quilting
Comments One thing I've learned from my husband's experience as a docent at the Whitney museum is that a travelling show can be a completely different entity in a different museum space, with a different curator arranging it. I'd love to see the Gee's Bend show in another location, since the way it was shown at the Whitney sounds entirely different from what you describe. The quilts are amazing in any context, but it's fun to get a new take on them when they're hung in various arrangements. And by the way, if you haven't seen the PBS documentary about these women, be sure to get it. It's incredibly moving. Posted by Liesl on September 10, 2006 10:00 PM You probably already know this, but the USPS has a set of Gee's Bend quilt stamps out right now. They're neat. Posted by TheBon on September 10, 2006 10:33 PM I'm so looking forward to the GB:Architecture of the Quilt show coming to Indianapolis soon. And I hadn't heard of the MLB show...thanks for this info! Posted by Jan on September 11, 2006 6:08 AM Thanks for the wonderful review of the show. I don't know if I'll ever get to see it, so it was nice to read about your experience at least! Posted by Laural on September 11, 2006 8:30 AM My Austin Art Chicks friends rode over to see the show. We loved, loved, loved the tape quilt and are setting it up for our kids to do at their Elementary school after they see the Austin MOA Gee's Bend quilts. It was an inspiring day for us too. Some of those Gee's ladies are coming to the Museum, and then to the Austin Quilt Show, it should be fun. Posted by Kathy on September 11, 2006 11:36 AM Here's our field trip. What a blast! http://rockettots.blogspot.com/2006/08/went-to-houston-with-art-chicks-road.html Posted by kathy on September 11, 2006 11:38 AM I'm so jealous you get to see this exhibit. I doubt they'll be stopping in Canada (although I'm now going to look). I loved what you wrote at the end about just making quilts and not being over-anxious about perfect technique - something that is still stopping me from starting (and finishing) my quilts. Posted by Melissa on September 11, 2006 12:56 PM I went to see it in Houston too. I found the messiness to be one of the most inspiring things about it. I sew, but I'm a messy seamstress, but like you said I just need to do it! I just made a quilted bag and it's not perfect, but it's like no other. I think of it as my Gees Bend bag! Posted by Jeanne on September 11, 2006 2:57 PM I saw the exhibit in Houston as well and found the quilts interesting. What is this about an Austin quilt show and a Gee's Bend exhibit here? Off to Google! Posted by Elizabeth K on September 12, 2006 7:26 AM I definitely agree with your last statement. I am hand quilting a quilt for my mother right now and am being very hard on myself. I need to just enjoy the process and like you said..remember where the love is. Posted by Amy on September 13, 2006 10:37 AM I saw them in reverse order and was subsequently disappointed in the Austin show. It truly paled in comparison. My favorite of the Houston show was the Sears corduroy, and then the workclothes quilts. Those were particularly ripe for a good old con/textual reading. You could write a damn dissertation on that show alone. And I was inspired by the artful artlessness of the quilts, if that makes sense. What I mean is, they didn't teach themselves to quilt from a book, which is what I attempted to do and was intimidated by. They just sewed some damn fabric together. And that's what I've started doing. Quilt shows! hooray! Posted by boxing octopus on September 13, 2006 12:24 PM There was a mini exhibit in Seattle this summer. I love the messiness! It is helping me overcome my guilt at not being a quilting perfectionist. Posted by Rose on September 14, 2006 11:18 PM The MFAH show was overwhelmingly good I thought (I too missed the first.) I was there for the opening and remarked to one of the quilters about the difficulties of hand quilting courduroy. She just shrugged it off -- that was all she had, so that's what she used. These were strong women, in every sense. Posted by Amy on September 15, 2006 3:55 PM I can't wait to see the Austin show. The messy comment reminds me of the part in the PBS documentary where one of the quilters recounts that when a quilt manufacturer was recruiting some of the townswomen to sew for them, they told her that her stitches were too messy, too big. She laughs about it now (if I remember rightly), but ... It's just amazing to think of how many potential artists (in varying media) are thwarted in the name of perfection. Sigh. Posted by julia on September 15, 2006 11:09 PM I would give anything to see either of those shows, or even look thru that huge Gee's Bend Quilt books! I do have one small book that I look through all the time, especially when I quilt and worry too much about things looking too perfect! Your blog is one of my favorites to read! Posted by Coleen on September 16, 2006 6:33 AM I heard a quilter teach a class once, and she said if you are too hung up on perfection, you should make a quilt using only your hand as a measuring device. That will fix you. Posted by kathy on September 17, 2006 8:11 AM Hello Kim, My comment's a little late; I came to your blog after seeing your "World's Worst Backyard" note at the TX forum, then saw this post about the Gee's Bend quilts. My husband and I went to the Austin Show, not Houston's, and enjoyed it tremendously. We'd read a little about the quilts and their original uses to cover floors, beds and block the wind from leaky walls and windows, so we knew they were not going to have anything sissy in the construction! They were amazing. Lucky you for seeing both exhibitions! Annie at the Transplantable Rose Posted by Annie in Austin on October 12, 2006 2:50 PM The De Young in SF still has the Gee's Bend exhibit until the end of December. They are displaying it in two parts. The first part was up until mid-Sept I think. Currently the second half is up. So there's plenty of time to see it there. PLUS the new building is incredible. They have a seven-story viewing tower from which you see most of the city. Posted by Janet on October 14, 2006 6:29 PM I know I'm terribly late to the party for this post, but wanted to say 'Amen' to your insightful observations about these quilts and their 'surprises'. I'm too uptight about straight edges and flat surfaces to want to OWN one of these quilts (it shames me to admit), but they inspire me every day to JUST FREAKIN DO IT. Graphically they are stunning. Emotionally they are rich. What more do we want? xox Kay Posted by Kay on October 31, 2006 3:16 PM |
