Building on tropes of " Americanist abstract-art " and " improvisational African-American-art " that emerged as systems of quilt evaluation in the 1970s, this book promotes recognition of a distinctive vernacular cross-racial-group quilt aesthetic. Author-collector Roderick Kiracofe presents about one hundred forty five quilts and quilt-tops chosen not for traits that suggest a maker who had extensive time, money, and needlework skill, but for graphic designs that are " quirky " and " improvisational, " have " soul and self-expression, " are " bold " and " real, made to be used, " that " break the rules " and are " sculptural " (the latter referring to quilts that are held together with bits of string or yarn rather than quilting stitches) (12-14). Given that traits such as variable (scrap-friendly) color schemes and vernacular design and construction methods place most of these pieces in a thrift-and-necessity-oriented utility-quilt tradition, their makers probably would be surprised to see them cast here as art in fine photographs and eight scholarly essays. However, two autobiographical essays speak to the rural southern context that spawned many of the works. Most pieces are anonymous, but about one hundred thirty are listed with locations (often just a state name) where they were made or " found, " about forty are listed with the maker's name, and about fifteen are listed as having African American makers. There is no information on white maker ethnicity although improvisational quilt traits have been attributed to Anglo-Appalachian and Scots Irish American makers. Of the total pieces shown here, about ninety four (65 percent) are listed in southern states (about forty of them from Alabama), 37 in northern states, one as " possibly Canada, " and 13 unknown.

A comprehensive analysis of 650 quilts made between 1870 and 1945 revealed two related yet divergent trends. On one hand, many quilts embody the anti-modern sentiments common to the era, in particular those of the Aesthetic Movement and the Colonial Revival. Reacting against the negative aspects of industrialized life, these two movements looked to exotic cultures and past eras for inspiration. The Aesthetic Movement influenced crazy quilts of the 1870s and 1880s, with an emphasis on foreign-inspired motifs and needlework methods. The Colonial Revival reintroduced quilt styles that had been popular in America prior to the Civil War. On the other hand, technological advances, such as the sewing machine, dye synthesis, and improved communications, simultaneously transformed quiltmaking into a fully modern pastime. While these parallel developments may seem contradictory, they are characteristic of a nation struggling with what it means to be “modern.”

A strong characteristic of American popular culture in the 1920s and 1930s was its fascination with all things “oriental,” or generally exotic. It was expressed in a multitude of areas, including furniture, fashion, movies and architecture. It was also evident in quiltmaking, an extremely popular pastime of the era, in the preponderance of patchwork patterns that had an exotic theme or name. Sometimes the designs of these patterns directly reflected their exotic names; most often they did not. The reasons for the popularity of exotic pattern names are varied. Certainly, pattern designers were capitalizing on the fashion for anything oriental. But, as this paper will propose, ladies' magazine publishers and quilt column writers also were reacting to Americans' ambivalence about Asians—their fear of the “yellow peril” mixed with their admiration for Eastern design. By naming and renaming patterns and, more importantly, by mixing oriental, “colonial,” and modern imagery and verbiage, they diluted the negative connotations of the exotic and potentially made it more palatable to the tradition-centered quiltmaking world.

STACY C HOLLANDER R ecently there has been an explosion of interest in American quilting. Scholars have explored quilts by chronology, region, construction, and materials. They have looked at the overall history, they have focused on singular traditions. One important and complex area of inquiry that has emerged over the last decade is the study of quilts and other textiles made by African Americans. From May 12 to 16, 1993, as part of "The Great American Quilt Festival 4" at Pier 92 on the Hudson River, the Museum of American Folk Art will present two important exhibitions devoted to quilts made by AfricanAmerican quiltmakers. Both exhibitions represent many years of research on the part of their respective curators — Dr. Maude Southwell Wahlman and Cuesta Benberry— and offer different aspects of the history of AfricanAmerican quilting in the United States. While one exhibition explores the African antecedents of some AfricanAmerican quilting traditions, the other present...

"The crazy quilt was born, hit its zenith of popularity, and faded from high fashion all within the last quarter of the nineteenth century," writes Marin F. Hanson, assistant curator at the International Quilt Study Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Composed of irregularly shaped and randomly placed pieces of fabric-usually silk-and embellished with profuse embroidery, the crazy quilt was a product of many influences: the greater availability of silk fabrics, the philosophies of the aesthetic movement, a new fascination with Japanese design, and the introduction of English needlework styles." To help us understand how this essentially "urban fad" penetrated rural America, here Hanson examines a crazy quilt produced by Eva Wight of Saline County, Kansas, in 1891. "Examining Eva Wight's quilt in its various contexts, therefore, helps us understand how late-nineteenth-century quiltmaking in central Kansas may not have been radically different from quiltmaking all over America."

Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt offers about two hundred and ten photographs of quilts, including many from the exhibition by the same name, and essays by ten authors on aspects of Gee's Bend quiltmaking. Editors Paul Arnett, Joanne Cubbs, and Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr. say in the preface that this project builds on the earlier Gee's Bend quilt exhibition and catalogues (Beardsley, et al. 2002) by highlighting architecture as a design source and metaphor and by documenting the local quiltmaking renaissance inspired by the earlier exhibition's success. The catalogue continues earlier themes of aesthetic analysis; the role of family and community; and personal statements from artists. In addition to exhibition curator William Arnett, whose Tinwood Alliance owns most of the quilts, the authors are art museum curators, an art critic, a quilt-book author, a material culture scholar, and three Gee's Bend quiltmakers. Topics include work-clothes quilts, corduroy quilts, a slave woman's local legacy, geometric pattern variations, and quilts as architecture. All essays are illustrated by color photographs of quilts that relate to their topic. Some include historical and contemporary photographs of quiltmakers and Gee's Bend, and all essays feature a few close-up shots of the Gee's Bend environment, such as barn siding, a fence, or a store front, that are intended to show that they influence quilt designs. Thus, the quilts are framed both by text and by selected images of the community in which they were made and used. The catalogue's organization supports its themes in that: (1) the juxtaposition of environmental close-ups with quilts suggests a connection between quiltmaking and local architecture; (2) the post-2002 date of many of the quilts testifies to a Gee's Bend quiltmaking revival; and (3) written text highlights family and neighborhood connections that promote a sense of an isolated but internally integrated community with aesthetic continuity across generations. Most of the quilts are shown spread flat against a white background. Many have an 11-by-13 inch page to themselves. Others are grouped two or four to a page, in some cases inserted into the text. A quilt detail is at the start of each essay, and a few photographs show women working with, holding, or sitting on quilts. In addition to this visual data, captions list name and birth date of maker, pattern name and date of quilt, fabrics, and size. The essays provide more subjective data in the form of aesthetic analysis, design influences, fabric sources, community history, biographies, and local uses. Captions could have been improved by including data about quilting designs (the stitches that hold the cloth layers together), binding style, and use of hand-or machine-sewing. I also would have liked to see photographs of certain mainstream " pattern " quilts which some quiltmakers mention making in their essays, if these survive (Double Wedding Ring, Carpenter's Wheel, baby quilts). More regional and quilt historical contextualization would also have been useful,

In this chapter, I begin by exploring the rich history of activist quilting and activist quilt scholarship. I then turn to what I call the expanded field of quilting, following Rosalind Krauss’s (1979: 30-44) term “the expanded field.” Specifically, I analyze the extension of quilting practice in to different contexts and examine the work of a series of artists who do not create traditional quilts but who use the processes of quilting (such as patching, suturing and appliqué) to draw together knowledge, facts, images and artifacts into quilted wholes, often with activist or political intent. I ask whether such works can be read as akin to twenty-first century activist quilts?