Sunday 24 January 2021

The Gee's Bend Quiltmakers

Rita Mae Pettway - 'Pig in the pen' - block style, (detail), 2019
 
 
 
"I came to realize that my mother, her mother, my aunts, and all the others from Gee’s Bend had sewn the foundation, and all I had to do now was thread my own needle and a piece of quilt."  - Loretta Pettway Bennett (b. 1960), Daughter of Qunnie Pettway (1943 - 2010), Granddaughter of Candis Mosely Pettway (1924 - 1997).

 

 

"Alison Jacques Gallery presents the first solo exhibition in Europe devoted to three generations of women artists living in Gee’s Bend, officially known as Boykin, a remote black community situated on a U-turn in the Alabama River with a number of the artists still living and working in Boykin to this day. The geographic isolation of Boykin has fostered a unique environment for both the women’s art community and their chosen method of quilting. 

The experimental processes and compositional language of the quilts have been passed down through generations of Gee’s Bend residents, from grandmothers to mothers to daughters. This idea of inherited knowledge is a key part of the artists’ work, something demonstrated here by the inclusion of works by members of the same family. A quilt from the 1930s by Annie E. Pettway (1904–1972) is presented alongside another by her granddaughter, Rita Mae Pettway (b. 1941); a quilt from 1970 by Candis Mosely Pettway (1924-1997) comes together with work from her daughter, Qunnie Pettway (1943-2010), and her granddaughter, Loretta Pettway Bennett (b. 1960). The familial lines that run through the show allude to the importance of communality and continuity to the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers, with their techniques preserved and uniquely interpreted by each generation. In this sense, the quilts signify both a collective past and a hope for the future.

Uninhibited by the conventions of fine or folk art, the Gee’s Bend quilts constitute a crucial chapter in the history of American art. The vivid and multi-layered textiles preserve numerous vocabularies and approaches to form; the interplay between symbols and asymmetry refers to histories of African textiles while also evoking the formal qualities of Modernist painting. Forgoing more traditional art historical classifications, the quiltmakers organise their quilts into loose categories: ‘Abstraction & Improvisation’, ‘Pattern & Geometry’, ‘Housetop & Bricklayer’, ‘Lazy Gal’ and ‘Work Clothes’. 

"These women, closely bound by family and custom […] spent their precious spare time—while not rearing children, chopping wood, hauling water and ploughing fields—splicing scraps of old cloth to make robust objects of amazingly refined, eccentric abstract designs." - Michael Kimmelman. But the Gee’s Bend quilts were not sewn in the name of recreation alone—and neither were they originally conceived of as artworks. Instead, they were created out of necessity and a staunch belief that nothing should go to waste. When the nights grew cold, the women would stitch together scraps of fabric to insulate their children’s beds. Which is not to say that aesthetic consideration was not given. It was, and is, a common practice for the quiltmakers to publicly ‘air out’ their quilts every Spring, providing members of the local community with the opportunity to survey one another’s methods and take inspiration for their future designs.

The residents of Gee’s Bend are almost all descendants of slaves who worked on the original Pettway plantation - many bear the slaveowner’s name to this day. During the Civil Rights Movement, the community gained national recognition when they established the Freedom Quilting Bee collaborative and distributed their quilts across the country".

 


Finally, at long last, a chance to see the celebrated quilts of the Gee's Bend quilters in London. Having only experienced them online or in books previously, this exhibition (visited just before the announcement of lockdown 3.0), proved to be a real treat. These quilts are a delight. They are as vivid and creative as I hoped they would be. They are also a triumph of both colour and pattern, and my expectations were totally fulfilled. It was interesting to see the obvious links between the quilts and certain 20th C. fine art movements, and the works of artists who use textiles as part of their oeuvre. However, working in a closed community the older generation of Gee's Bend quilters at least would not have been aware of any developments in art/design outside of their own hamlet. I saw ancestral links in the Gee's Bend quilts with the Asafo flags of the Fante, Kuba cloth, and in the case of the denim quilt cross cultural connections with Japanese Boro textiles (here). Thread, stitch and textiles have informed much of my work especially the latest Aeolus and Struktur series, and I was able to see further possibilities with stitch and my own work here with these quilts. This is another absorbing exhibition of textiles like that currently on display at the Estorick Collection created by Italian artists and designers for MITA, seen recently (here). I'm so thankful that I took the opportunity to visit this  exhibition before its enforced closure. Hopefully it will be extended to compensate for the closure due to the pandemic.


Installation view
 
Stella Mae Pettway - Big Wheel, 1986

Delia Bennett - 'Diamonds' variation - 'One Patch', c.1975


Loretta Pettway - 'Log Cabin' - single block 'Courthouse Steps' c. 1980



America Irby - Center Medallion, c. 1940

 

Essie Bendolph Pettway - Two-sided quilt: Blocks and 'One Patch' - stacked squares and rectangles variation, 1973


Loretta Pettway Bennett - 'Z' and Chinese Coins, Pink, navy, Blue and Multi-colour, 2004

Candis Mosely Pettway - Coat of Many Colors, 1970

Qunnie Pettway - Housetop, c.1975

 
Ethel Young - 'Crosscut Saw', c.1970
 

 
Rita Mae Pettway - 'Pig in the pen' - block style, (detail), 2019




Annie E. Pettway - 'Housetop' nine-block variation, c. 1930


Loretta Pettway Bennett - Work-clothes strips, 2003
 
Loretta Pettway - Two-sided work-clothes quilt: Bars and blocks, c. 1960




The Gee's Bend Quiltmakers
until 6th February
Alison Jacques Gallery
16-18 Berners Street
London
W1 
 
(Please note that viewing hours for this exhibition have ended temporarily in light of the ongoing Tier 4 level lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic).
 

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