Encountering African American Quilts at the Flint Institute of Arts

detail Lone Star attributed to Mary Duncan c. 1950

The Flint Institute of Arts has an exhibit of African American quilts through April 10, 2016. The thirty quilts are beautifully presented. The highlight of the show is the display of quilts by Yvonne Wells whose pictorial quilts depict icons such as Rosa Parks, Helen Keller, Jackie Robinson and Elvis. She also has story quilts relating to Civil Rights, one of which brought me to tears.

Lone Star

From Heart to Hand includes 30 quilts on loan from the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts that showcase line, color, and pattern in traditional, improvisational, and appliqué quilts. Materials employed include clothing, feedsacks, new fabric, ties, and jeans. The quilts are hand quilted, often in the Baptist (or Methodist) Fan, concentric arcs of quilting across the surface, or following the seam lines.

Log Cabin variation, Sallie Gladney, 1989

Housetop quilt, Plummer T. Pettway, c. 1960-70

Patriotic Stars, Mary Maxtion, c. 1992

Roman Stripes, Lureca Outland,c. 1989

detail Everybody Quilt, Addie Pelt, c. 1988

African American quilts are generally identified by their color use, asymmetry, improvisation, and over-sized design patterns. 'Tweaking' a pattern is a part of their creative self-expression.  Many quiltmakers also look back to African textile roots for inspiration.

The Gees Bend quiltmakers have become identified as representative of African American quilts. But African American quilts include all kinds of quilts and you can not identify the cultural background of a quilt just by looking at it. Many fall into the realm of Folk Art, a term which today is even being stretched as quilt artists are inspired by 'folk' traditions. In the end, only provenance can identify a quilt as made by an African American, Southerner, folk artist, or quilt artist.

Nora's Necktie Flower Garden, Nora Ezell, 1994

Pig Pen Quilt, late 20th c

Log Cabin/Pig Pen variation, Catherine Somerville, c. 1950-60

Crib quilt, c. 1945

I toured the exhibit with my local quilt guild. The quilts challenge conventional wisdom about quilts, and art, what materials are 'suitable' for quilts, and if precision is better than naive improvisation.

The Lord is My Shuper, Sarah Mary Taylor, c. 1989

detail The Lord is My Shuper

Yvonne Wells was a high school teacher when she made her first quilt in 1979. She progressed from abstract quilts to free form cut appliqué pieces sewn raw edged to the quilt surface. I had a visceral reaction to her quilts. When at lunch the question was raised, "but are they art?" I quickly reacted and said, "If it changes your perception, it's art."

detail Humpty Dumpty, 1988 by Yvonne Wells

Leaving the first room of the exhibit, which included geometric and more traditional quilt patterns, and entering the second room with Well's art was a real shift. I had to LOOK at the quilt and understand the message. I heard people asking what motifs stood for, deciphering the image and the message. Here was Humpty Dumpty, there was Elvis with his sequins. Jackie Robinson's bat was huge and shiny with buttons, representing the impact of his skill and life. Helen Keller sat with her book of Braille, appliquéd cocktail napkins shining white against the dark background. The Higgenbottoms were a happy, well dressed pair. They make you smile.

Elvis, Yvonne Wells, 1991

detail Elvis

Helen Keller by Yvonne Wells

detail Helen Keller quilt

 detail Jackie Robinson by Yvonne Wells

The Higgenbottoms II, 1989, Yvonne Wells

The last quilt I looked at had a striking blood-red background with stick figures and scenic motifs scattered around the surface. I noted a grave yard, a circle of figures around a large man at a podium, a bus with white stick figures in front and a lone black stick figure sitting in the rear. Then I saw the stick figure hanging from a tree, My knees buckled, and I collapsed on a nearby bench and shuddered. And had a good cry.

Civil Rights in the South III, 1989, Yvonne Wells

I had not expected, ever, to see a lynching depicted on a quilt. Quilts were warm and cozy and pretty. Quilts showered you with love. In the hands of an artist a quilt is art that shouts to the world, "you must change your life." Or at least change your perception. Art shows us what we know and cannot bear to observe. It takes us by the throat and draws our breath and leaves us weak with realization of what has been waiting to be understood all along.

The title of the quilt is Civil Rights in the South.

detail Civil Rights in the South III

Detail Civil Rights in the South III

Detail Civil Rights in the South III

Then I noted that a figure in the circle was being hit by a spray. I learned it was a fire hose, held by the yellow figure. There are slaves picking cotton, a dog waiting to be unleashed for attack, George Wallace baring the door to the school. And along the left the figures of the martyred boys Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman laying behind the dam where buried after being murdered because they worked for voting rights.

detail Civil Rights in the South III

Before we left the museum we visited Jacob Lawrence's The Legend of John Brown prints based on his 1941 paintings in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Art.

Before we left we visited the gallery with landscapes, including works from my favorite Hudson River and Luminist school paintings. After delving into the depths of evil humans can plumb I was glad to be reminded of our proper place in the world, in nature. We are insignificant in the large scheme of things. If only that knowledge brought the wisdom that we are all in this together, sisters and brothers for our short time, and endeavor to bring love and mercy and empathy to all our interactions.

Jasper Cropsey, Hudson River View, 1872

detail Hudson River View

Martin Heade, Sunset on the Marshes, 1863

Pierre Damoye, Flooded Meadows, 1880

Dove Descending, Yvonne Wells, 1993

Vintage Quilts

I finally have a place set up so I can take photographs of my quilts hanging up.

This quilt was made from decorating fabric samples with several prints in different colors ways. It has feather stitching between the blocks, a gold backing, no batting. It is quite heavy! I tried sleeping under it during this past brutally cold winter and was too warm! It was an eBay find about 15 years ago.

Print in three color ways; a fourth is elsewhere on the quilt

feather stitching

Add caption

About seven years ago my dad was driving around and saw a trunk along the road. He put it in the back of his truck. When he opened it he found this Carolina Lily quilt inside! It is very primitive, poorly constructed and quilted, and heavy. But it has a great vibrancy and joy. The fabrics appear to be late 70s/early 90s.



That orange fabric is amazing. Some fabrics could have been from clothing, shirts or light weight pants.

I wrote about buying four quilts from the Royal Oak Flea Market last year. A man had a table piled with quilts taken from an empty East Side Detroit house. The owner had passed on and her family gave him permission to take what he wanted. He was selling the quilts for $35-45.

This Trip Around the World has a small red and white check print used in the border. It is all made by hand.

Another quilt by the same maker is this large masterpiece. People walking by smirked at the bright yellow border.

This is how I found the last two quilts above, piled up on an outdoor table. I bought four quilts total, including the red and white print one in the center of the table. It was a wholecloth quilt with a Christmas bell border that I discovered had an 1880s quilt used as batting! You can see pics of what was inside at: http://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2013/03/flea-market-finds-week-two.html

Flea Market Finds, Week Two

I returned to the Royal Oak, MI flea market. I was able to get the two quilts I really went back for. When I made an offer, the seller said no, he had a lady coming back for the quilts. I said, that lady is me! Instead of three quilts I bought two.

The first quilt was surely not going to sell easily, because its bright yellow fabric was a turn-off to many. Last week I heard people deriding the yellow in the quilt. But it is in great condition, no fading, likely never washed. At 100"by 79" it was the largest of the quilts there.

The piecing is quite good, but the hand quilting is the large stitches with coarse thread seen in the other quilts. The quilter left long tails of the thread uncut.

The yellow calico in the stars is different from the yellow border fabric. The quilt maker bought all new fabric for this quilt, with only the five fabrics used in the top. It is backed by a coarse muslin.

The other quilt I wanted was a simple whole cloth quilt in a red calico, with two side borders in a charming bells on ribbon print.

After I got this home and looked at what repairs it needed, I found it had a surprise. The batting was an older quilt! I could see the bound edge through a gap where the quilt binding was undone.An older red and white print could be seen.

I held this quilt up to a window to reveal that an appliqued quilt was indeed sandwiched in between the layers.

I knew that in hard times, old quilts, along with blankets and old clothes, were used for batting. It was a surprise to find I had just purchased just such a quilt.

The quilt maker used whatever she could afford. The first quilt shown would have been prized because she bought all new fabric to make a special quilt. But I prize this second quilt, because it speaks of her need: the need for warmth, the need to make do, the need for economy, and the need for beauty.