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Quilt Art (sometimes known as "art quilting") is an art form that uses traditional quilting techniques to create art objects.

Quilt art practitioners create their art based on their experiences, imagery, and ideas rather than using traditional patterns.

Quilt art generally has more in common with the fine arts than it does with traditional quilting. This is a form of art intended to be hung on the wall, though of course exceptions exist.

Early contributors to the field
Jean Ray Laury is cited by Robert Shaw as the "most prominent and influential of [the] early modern quiltmakers." Laury is an "academically trained artist and designer who encouraged women to create their own new designs based on their own experiences, surroundings and ideas rather than traditional patterns." Laury wrote, "There are no rules in stitchery -- no single 'right'way of working." Pauline Burbidge, a British artist, first saw old quilts in Portobello Road in London and 30 years later is still working in the medium. (McMorris P. 48)

Radka Donnell, as a former painter, used her training in her quilted works. Donnell is a feminist who eschews the "art scene" in order to explore quilts as liberating creativity for women. As of 1996 she taught a course on the history, theory, and techniques of quilting at Simmons College and Westfield State College in Massachusetts.

Charles and Rubynelle Counts, after studying at Berea College and elsewhere, started a crafts center. Charles Counts designed tops which were then quilted by local artisans. Rising Fawn, the crafts center, continued to produce quilts into the mid-1970's; the designs are little known today but are still distinctive.(Shaw, p.49 50)

Joan Lintault produced original textile and quilted art before quilting or quilt art became a national pastime. She and Therese May, as well as the Counts, had work that was first published by Jean Ray Laury in Quilts and Coverlets: A Contemporary Approach, 1970. While Lintault often makes openwork tops, May is known for her embellished and painted quilts, using private symbols and figures.

Beth Gutcheon and Michael James both were quilting instructors, beginning a trend which still allows quilting artists to earn income from a pursuit close to their art. Gutcheon published The Perfect Patchwork Primer in 1973. James' book, The Quiltmaker's Handbook: a Guide to Design and Construction (1978) was more technical. These two books are often cited as the place where contemporary quilt artists began. James' follow-up book, published in 1981, The Quilter's Handbook: Creative Approaches to Contemporary Quilt Design showed his work as well as photos and analyses of art by Nancy Halpern, Beth Gutcheon, Radka Donnell, Nancy Crow, Francoise Barnes, Katie Pasquini, among others. (Shaw, p. 54)

Nancy Crow, another influential teacher and writer of books, was instrumental in freeing quilting artists from certain preconceptions about rules. Her 1995 exhibit, Improvisational Quilts, was the first solo exhibition of art quilts done by the Renwick Gallery.(Shaw, p 66)

Two other quilt artists,Molly Upton and Susan Hoffman, exhibited with Radka Donnell in 1975 at the Carpenter Center for the Arts at Harvard University. Also in 1975 Upton and Hoffman exhibited at the Kornblee Gallery on 57th Street in New York City. In doing so, they brought quilt art to the forefront as comparable to other forms of contemporary art. According to Robert Shaw, "Where other quilters were moving away from the traditional quilt one step at a time, seeing how far they could push the quilt format while still remaining connected to historical precedent, Hoffman and Upton largely ignored the rules and the assumed limitations of traditional quilting and simply leapt forward." Shaw pg 60

Other quilt artists working in the 1970's include Terrie Hancock Mangat, Gayle Fraas and Duncan Slade, jan Myers, Pauline Burbidge, Pamela Studstill, Joan Schultz, Yvonne Procella, Ruth McDowell, and Rise Nagin. (McMorris, Shaw) Susan Hoffman

Important early exhibits
Although many quilts made and displayed prior to the 1970s now can 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 NY Times art critic, Hilton Kramer.

Other exhibits in the 1970's 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", the first of the still existing biennial exhibits spotlighting contemporary, generally original, designs. It too is a traveling exhibit.

Other important exhibits of the 1970's include "Bed and Board", DeCordova Museum (a museum of twentieth-century American art) Lincoln Nebraska, 1975, "Quilts '76", the Boston Center for the Arts, 1975, and "Quilted Tapestries," Kornblee Gallery, NYC, 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 Country Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
 * High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia
 * Muse ArtColle, Sergines, France
 * Museum of the State of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
 * Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Professional organizations
The professional organization for quilt artists is Studio Art Quilt Associates, founded in 1989. Overlaps with other professional organizations, such as the Machine Quilters and Machine Embroiders exist for practitioners of the form. Major exhibitions involving only quilt art are at Quilt National, in Athens, Ohio, and at Quilt Visions in San Diego, California. Art using quilting techniques are appropriate for all fine art venues. Many mixed media and collage art exhibitions are especially appropriate.

Making quilt art
An art quilt is generally defined as two layers of cloth held together by stitching. In most cases, a middle batting layer is also incorporated.

Quilt artists may use many different techniques to create their artwork, including painting, dyeing, stamping, pieceing, collage, printing (often incorporating a photograph printed onto fabric), applique, and other complex cloth processes.

Controversies within quilt art
This is a sub-category stub. Referencing the Lorre M. Weidlich article in the SAQA Newsletter, Spring 1996, Vol 6, number 2 will be essential.