Quilt Art - Important Early Exhibits in The U.S.

Important Early Exhibits in The U.S.

Although many quilts made and displayed prior to the 1970s can now be defined as art, the form was most importantly recognized as legitimate art in the 1971 Whitney exhibit, Abstract Design in American quilts. That exhibit of pieced quilts from the 19th and early 20th centuries, organized by Jonathan Holstein, presented the quilts on stark white walls with simple gallery labels. Holstein organized the exhibit so that each piece could "be seen both as an isolated object and as part of a balanced flow of objects." This type of visual presentation marked a break from the traditional crowded hanging of quilts in county fairs and guild shows that had predominated throughout earlier displays. The exhibit was widely reviewed, including a glowing report by the New York Times art critic, Hilton Kramer.

The presentation of pieced quilts, with their emphasis on color and geometric forms, fit perfectly into the art modes of the time. The abstract expressionists, like Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, who used large swaths of color on canvas, had had their moment in the 1950s. They were followed in the 1960s by such hard edge abstractionists as Frank Stella. Thus the public had already been prepared for highly colored abstract art work; the pieced quilts in the Whitney exhibit fit into the current art scene. The Whitney's pieced art exhibit toured the country and was followed by a quilt craze, which reached a culmination in the Bicentennial events of 1976. Many quilts were made for that event and a revival of interest in quilting techniques and materials started giving artists expanded work potential. In addition the feminist movement of the late 60s and 70s produced a new interest in women who worked in the arts as well as formerly neglected women's work that could now be seen as art. Quilts, exhibited in galleries and museums, fit into the country's cultural and social concerns.

Other exhibits in the 1970s presented the "new type of quilt, one markedly different from its tradition-inspired counterparts." "The Art Quilt" was a traveling exhibit, sponsored by the Art Museum Association of America, debuting at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery on October 1, 1986. Two other exhibits were "The New American Quilt" at The Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York City in 1976 and "Quilt National" in 1979, the first of the still existing biennial exhibits spotlighting contemporary, generally original, designs. It too is a traveling exhibit.

Other important exhibits of the 1970s include "Bed and Board", DeCordova Museum (a museum of twentieth-century American art), Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1975; "Quilts for 76", the Boston Center for the Arts, 1975; and "Quilted Tapestries," Kornblee Gallery, New York City, 1975. Many annual venues now exist in which quilt art is exhibited; these include the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, and elsewhere, and Quilt Visions, in Oceanside, California.

Art quilts are now part of collections in museums such as the:

• American Craft Museum, New York, New York
• Missoula Museum of the Arts, Missoula, Montana
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
• High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
• Muse ArtColle, Sergines, France
• Museum of the State of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
• Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
• The Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, North Carolina
• The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
• Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, Nebraska
• The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, Golden, Colorado
• The Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts
• The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Museum of the American Quilters' Society, Paducah, Kentucky
• Ball State University Gallery of Art, Muncie, Indiana
• Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont
• Philadelphis Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Museum of the State of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Quilted art outside the U.S. has flourished in the UK, France, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and possibly elsewhere. More information about the art in these countries needs added to this site.