The Quilts of Gees Bend

The Quilts of Gees Bend were created by a group of women who live in the isolated, African American hamlet of Gee's Bend, Alabama. Like many American quilters, the women transformed a necessity into a work of art -- but their innovative and often minimalist approach to design is unique.

"The compositions of these quilts contrast dramatically with the ordered regularity associated with many styles of Euro-American quiltmaking. There's a brilliant, improvisational range of approaches to composition that is more often associated with the inventiveness and power of the leading 20th-century abstract painters than it is with textile-making," Alvia Wardlaw, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts. [ [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=970364 'The Quilts of Gee's Bend'] ]

More than 50 quiltmakers make up the [http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/history/ Gee's Bend Collective] . The Collective is owned and operated by the women of Gee’s Bend. Every quilt sold by the Gee’s Bend Quilt Collective is unique, individually produced, and authentic — each quilt is signed by the quilter and labeled with a serial number. Rennie Young Miller is the Collective's president.

Books/Media

* "The Quilts of Gee’s Bend", Tinwood Media
* "Gee’s Bend: The Women and Their Quilts", Tinwood Media
* Documentary video on the "Gee’s Bend quilters" and a double-CD of "Gee’s Bend Gospel Music from 1941 and 2002".

ee also

* Harriet Powers
* African American art

References