In the nearly four centuries since the 1619 arrival of three African women in Jamestown, Virginia, the history of African American women has often been neglected. Records of their hard-pressed lives are rare, and documents are often biased and negative. Yet African American women have made profound contributions to America, as well as ensuring the survival of their people from slavery to the present. Despite incredible suffering, African American women have provided a healing and nurturing balm to soothe the wounds of racism and oppression, raising self-worth and dignity.
Quilting African American Women’s History: Our Challenges, Creativity and Champions calls attention to these contributions by presenting quilts that are historical commentaries, emotive and pictorial artistic expressions layered with memories and meanings.
Representing skill, aesthetic beauty, and utilitarian need, no artistic form is more closely associated with African American culture than quiltmaking. In the tradition of the African griot, quilts tell stories of family leaders, moral and spiritual values, and social concerns. Such quilts have been the primary vehicle |
to preserve family and political histories for generations in both Africa and America. The onehundred-one exhibited quilts, which illustrate a broad range of techniques and inspirations, shed light on the lives and experiences of African-American women and examine the role African American women have played in such arena’s as education, politics, religion, business and family life.
In Quilting African American Women’s History: Our Challenges, Creativity and Champions, the vitality of quiltmaking and the resilient, creative spirit of Black women come alive. The diversity of genre and technique represented in the works reflect the diversity of African American quiltmakers, dispelling long-held misperceptions of African American quilt aesthetics. Through these quilts, our mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers continue to speak of their lives and give guidance. We are all blessed by their patience, perseverance, and heroism. Through the eye of a needle African American women have found their voices and become authorities on their life experiences. The voices of African American women are stitched into their quilts. This exhibition is a validating expression of cultural genius.
Carolyn L. Mazloomi, Curator
The Buzz About Quilting African American Women's History:
Art Quilts from the blog by Sara Pearce
of The Cincinnati Enquirer |
"The Spirit of Rita" - © Carolyn Crump
|
Textural Rhythms:
Constructing the
Jazz Tradition
An exhibition of contemporary
African American quilts.
Contact
Smith - Kramer
Travelling Exhibitions
for dates and booking information.
Works by members of the
Women of Color
Quilters Network, Inc.
are widely-represented in this show.
To purchase the book
Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition
Click here to go to the
Paper Moon Publishing website. |
What People Are Saying About Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition
"Beautiful! Gorgeous! In all of this, you remain the prophet of contemporary quilting in all its ramifications. Through the exhibitions that you have continued to curate, but even more significantly through the publications that you have devoted your energy to, you are mapping a new terrain, one that will hopefully correct the extant misconceptions and revisionisms about African American quilts making at the same time that empowers generations of students and the general public with that simple but effective weapon: truth!"
Dele Jegede, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Art
Miami University
Oxford, OH |
Threads
of Faith:
Recent Works from the Women of Color Quilters Network
A new publication
by The Gallery at the American Bible Society accompanies the exhibition
Threads of Faith: Recent Works from the Women of Color Quilters
Network.
Co-curated by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi and Dr. Patricia Pongracz,
this exhibition showcases more than 50 virtuoso examples of quilt
making. Created by members of the Women of Color Quilters Network,
the works in this exhibition catalog demonstrate how today's African-American
artisans are reinvigorating a traditional craft form and developing
religious imagery that reflects the contemporaneity of their lives
and communities.
The unique quilts represent a blending of African
and European religious traditions and illustrate a varietty of
interpretations, styles, uses and techniques. Many display the
maker's delight in experimenting with non-traditional quilting
materials, such as shell beads, metal, glass and bone.
The entries
in this exhibition catalog are divided into five thematic categories:
biblical narratives (Sacred Moments: From Scripture to Cloth),
women and family (Bearing Witness), prayers and spiritual meditations
(Hope: The Anchor of Our Souls), worship through the arts (Blessed
are the Piece Makers), and African-American experiences (We Have
Come This Far by Faith).
The varied individual perceptions of,
and responses to, the role faith plays in the larger world are
recorded in the artist's own words. Their voices reveal the diversity
of this particular group of artists — a diversity mirroring
the larger African-American quilting community. |
ISBN 1-585-1677-38
Item Number: 113019
9.5x11 Inches, 176 pages
60 Color images
Hardcover
January 2004, $45.00
Buy the book on Amazon.com
Travel
Schedule of Threads of Faith
~The Afro-American
Museum of Boston
January 2, 2005 to March 31, 2005
~The Mennonite Heritage
Center, Harleysville, PA (outside of Philadelphia)
July 15, 2005 to October 15, 2005
~Cincinnati Museum
Center, Cincinnati, OH
November 15, 2005 to February 28, 2006
~
Huntington Art
Museum, Huntington, WV
October 1, 2006 to December 30, 2006
~ King-Tisdale Art Center, Savanna, GA
July 9, 2006 to September 15, 2006
|
What
People Are Saying:
"remarkable…it's
unlikely any of these quilts will ever grace a bed. They are all
works of art, better looked at then slept under.
"Bob Abernathy,
PBS Religion & Ethics,
Feb. 2004
"so vivid
and colorful they almost seem to jump off the walls"
Barbara
Mayer, New York Times,
Feb. 2004
"a spiritual
journey in cloth"
WNET
Television, New York City,
Feb. 2004
"these quilts
stand out for their layers of meaning, hope and faith… they
have represented the rich tapestry of black religious life in the
United States"
Chris
Herlinger, Religion News Service,
Feb. 2004
|
Spirits
of the Cloth
Contemporary
African American Quilts
This
exhibition salutes the work of the Women of Color Quilters
Network, which came into being in 1986, and today numbers
over 1500 members across the length and breadth of the
United States. Created to provide a forum for understanding
and appreciating African American quilting, the Network
has grown into a community of quiltmakers of all backgrounds,
ages, and genders.In the 1970's, scholars described African American
quilts along
aesthetic lines, citing as defining characteristics the use of
bright colors, improvisation, multiple patterns, large stitches,
and large design elements. Subsequent research by other
scholars, notably Cuesta Benberry, revealed that the spectrum
of quilts made by artists in the African American community was
wider and more complex, encompassing as astonishing variety of
techniques, materials, and individual styles.
A
Cultural Legacy
Many of the
artists highlighted in Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African
American Quilts have been inspired by our country's African
American cultural and artistic legacy and by the rich cultural
heritage of Africa. Some of the artists actually incorporate
African textiles, such as Kente cloth and mud cloth, into their
compositions. Others celebrate history and ancestors
by using African symbols and imagery in their designs, such
as the depiction of Yamaja, the Yoruban goddess of the sea,
in Michael Cumming's Haitian
Mermaid. In Imani Faith, Adriene Cruz
revels the power of ritual in abstract patterns of form and color.
Life
Stories
American quilters
have long recognized the value of handmade quilts as reminders of
home, family, and friends. Using the quilt as a narrative medium, they
combine needlework and cloth to capture life's joys and sorrows. The
artists in this exhibition offer individual interpretations
of the ideals of home and family life in personal and visually
striking images. Dindga McCannon's The Wedding
Party: The History of our Nation is Really the History of Our
Families is a quilted page from a prized family
photo album. Frances Hare's Sixteen Feet of Dance: A
Celebration, A Self-Portrait expresses the artist energy
and passion for dance in a series of staccato silhouettes that
vibrate against a luminous background.
|
Buy the book:
Spirits of the Cloth:
Contemporary African American Quilts
by Carolyn Mazloomi
on Amazon.com
The
Power of Quilts
Political and social
activism has found a powerful vehicle of expression through quilts
since America's colonial period. Anti-slavery quilts and freedom
quilts from the nineteenth century have their descendants in twentieth
century quilts that record and comment upon topics ranging from civil
rights and political injustice, to urban politics, race, gender,
and status. With strong bold images, they remind us of our
own responsibilities and roles in shaping the world we live in and
underline our shared values of freedom, equality, and justice. Cathleen
Richardson Bailey's The Little Boy Had A Nightmare Aboard the
Slaveship Jesus, a poignant reminder of the inhumanity of
slavery, is a fulfillment of the artist's goal "to make my work
make people think, to make a change." L'Merchie Frazier's From
a Birmingham Jail: MLK incorporates photo transfer images
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with an excerpt from an April
1963 letter by Dr. King. The artist uses these powerful words
and images to animate "vestiges of memory" within the viewer.
An
Eye on Art
Quilts are the
format of choice for many artists. Celebrating the joys of
color, pattern, and texture, they employ a seemingly endless variety
of traditional and innovative materials and rely on techniques passed
down through generations as well as those created on the spot to
fabricate their artistic expressions. Gwendolyn A. Magee's Crystalline
Fantasy is based loosely on the forms of plants and flowers,
but it takes the viewer beyond simple imagery into a fantasy world
of sparkling embroidery and appliqué. Like a painter
wielding a fully loaded brush, Sandra Smith achieves a whirlwind
of color and form in Transition,
an abstract study using color and shape to explore the ambiguities
of two-and three-dimensional design. Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary
Quilts by African American Artists reveals the growing popularity
and significance of quilts as an art form. These quilts, in
their diversity and quality, attest to the ability of creative artists
to transform lifeless materials into lively and life-sustaining statements
of the human spirit. |
What People Are Saying About Spirits of the Cloth
"It is a magnificent show that transcends arbitrary distinctions between art and craft, while incorporating the spiritual dimension that imbues folk and visionary art with profound resonance.”
Chris MacLeod, art critic,
New York City
"In this exhibition, leading quilters explore their rich heritage. They use traditional African cloth, African symbols and imagery and bright colors to create associations with the homeland of their ancestors."
Elizabeth Broun, the Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
"This rich legacy of cultural expression developed in this country, culminating in a virtual renaissance of African American quilting in the past two decades.”
David McFadden, chief curator,
American Museum of Art and Design,
New York City
"The beauty of this exhibition lies not only in the brilliant colors and vibrant patterns of the quilts, but in the fact that these textiles capture such a rich history,"
Kenneth Trapp,
Curator-in-charge of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C
“The work is quite extraordinary. It’s quite different than what most people expect from quilts.” Also, many of these pieces will transcend cultural differences, so anyone can appreciate the wonderful artistic quality of these pieces.
Nancy Hixon,
Assistant Director, Blaffer Gallery of Art, University of Houston
|
