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The quilts of Gee's Bend are quilts created by a group of women and their ancestors who live or have lived in the isolated African-American hamlet of Gee's Bend, Alabama along the Alabama River. The quilts of Gee's Bend are among the most important African-American visual and cultural contributions to the history of art within the United States. Arlonzia Pettway, Annie Mae Young and Mary Lee Bendolph are among some of the most notable quilters from Gee's Bend. Many of the residents in the community can trace their ancestry back to enslaved people from the Pettway Plantation. Arlonzia Pettway can recall her grandmother's stories of her ancestors, specifically of Dinah Miller, who was brought to the United States by slave ship in 1859.
Souls Grown Deep Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting the work of leading contemporary African American artists from the Southeastern United States. Its mission is to include their contributions in the canon of American art history through acquisitions from its collection by major museums, as well as through exhibitions, programs, and publications. The foundation derives its name from a 1921 poem by Langston Hughes (1902–1967) titled "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," the last line of which is "My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Mary Lee Bendolph is an American quilt maker of the Gee's Bend Collective from Gee's Bend (Boykin), Alabama. Her work has been influential on subsequent quilters and artists and her quilts have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the country. Bendolph uses fabric from used clothing for quilting in appreciation of the "love and spirit" with old cloth. Bendolph has spent her life in Gee's Bend and has had work featured in the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minnesota.
Lucy Marie (Young) Mingo is an American quilt maker and member of the Gee's Bend Collective from Gee's Bend (Boykin), Alabama. She was an early member of the Freedom Quilting Bee, which was an alternative economic organization created in 1966 to raise the socio-economic status of African-American communities in Alabama. She was also among the group of citizens who accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. on his 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
Estelle Abrams Witherspoon was an American artist and civil rights activist. She was a founding member and longtime manager of the Freedom Quilting Bee, and is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting group, alongside her mother, Willie "Ma Willie" Abrams. She participated in the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, alongside Lucy Mingo. She was arrested in 1971 for participating in an un-permitted march for school desegregation.
Willie Abrams (1897–1987), also known as Ma Willie, was an American artist. She was a member of the Freedom Quilting Bee, along with her daughter Estelle Witherspoon, and is associated with the Gee's Bend quilters. Her work is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Annie Mae Young (1928–2013) was an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters. Her daughter, Nellie Mae Abrams, was also a quilter.
Qunnie Pettway (1943–2010) was an American artist. She worked for the Freedom Quilting Bee and is associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters. Her mother, Candis Pettway, taught her to quilt, and she passed the skill on to her daughter Loretta Pettway Bennett. She specialized in making traditional quilt patterns out of scraps she brought home from the Bee.
Sally Mae Pettway Mixon is an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective, alongside her mother, Candis Pettway, and her sisters Qunnie Pettway and Edwina Pettway.
Agatha Bennett (1919–2006) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective, alongside her mother-in-law, Delia Bennett. Her work is included in the collection of the High Museum of Art.
Delia Bennet (1892–1976) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective, and is said to be "the matriarch of perhaps the largest family of quilt producers in Gee's Bend. Her work is included in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Florine Smith is an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters.
Henrietta Pettway (1894–1971) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective. Her work is included in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her surviving quilts, dating from the 1920s, demonstrate how long the improvisational method has been in use in Gee's Bend.
Sue Willie Seltzer (1922–2010) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the National Gallery of Art, and is included in the collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Andrea Pettway Williams is an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective, along with her mother, Lorraine Pettway. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and is included in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She is a sixth-generation quilter.
Irene Williams (1920–2015) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective, although she made her quilts "in solitude" and "uninfluenced." Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Frist Art Museum, and is included in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the National Gallery of Art.
Magalene Wilson (1898–2001), also known as Magdalene Wilson, was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and is included in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Arcola Pettway (1934–1994) was an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters.
Gloria Hoppins is an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters.
Mary L. Bennett is an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective. Bennett came from a family of quilters originating with the matriarch of the family her grandmother, Delia Bennett. Her work is included in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and National Gallery of Art.
References
- ↑ John Beardsley; William Arnett; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Jane Livingston; Paul Arnett; Alvia J. Wardlaw (2002). The Quilts of Gee's Bend. Tinwood Books. pp. 170–. ISBN 978-0-9653766-4-8.
- ↑ Newsweek. Newsweek. 2002.
- ↑ Marvar, Alexandra (29 October 2018). "Can You Copyright a Quilt?". Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2019– via www.thenation.com.
- ↑ "High Museum of Art Receives 54 Artworks from Souls Grown Deep Foundation – High Museum of Art". Archived from the original on 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
- ↑ "National Gallery of Art Acquires Forty Works by African American Artists from Souls Grown Deep Foundation". www.nga.gov. 2020-12-28. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Flora Moore | Souls Grown Deep Foundation". www.soulsgrowndeep.org. Archived from the original on 2019-06-17. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
- ↑ "42-Mile Bus Ride Leads to All-Black High School". Washington Post. 1979-12-26. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2019-06-17. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
- ↑ "Medallion". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
- ↑ "Major Acquisitions from Souls Grown Deep Foundation Presented in 2022 Exhibition". www.nga.gov. 2022-01-28. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
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