Louisiana Bendolph

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Louisiana Bendolph (born October 20, 1960) is an American visual artist and quilt maker. Bendolph is associated with The Quilts of Gee's Bend and her work has been considered more conceptual because of her use of vibrant color. [1]

Contents

Art

Bendolph's work begins with sketches, and ultimately moves to fabric through innovation and improvisation. Her quilts typically start out as housetop, a pattern based on concentric squares resembling a birds-eye-view of a roof of a house, but during her quilting process, take on new shapes. [2]

Bendolph's creations have exhibited at the Addison Ripley Gallery in Washington, D.C., and in Seattle at the Greg Kucera Gallery. [3] Her work in the exhibition "Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt" was on display at the Walters Art Museum in 2007. [2]

Bendolph also produces prints from etchings. Her print "American Housetop (for the Arnetts)" (2005), which is dedicated to the family who linked Gee's Bend with the museum world, was on display at Lehman College Art Gallery in 2015 along with 14 quilts and photographs. [4]

Her 2013 work, entitled As I Leave I Shall Return, is also on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art. [5]

Personal life

Louisiana Bendolph was born to Rita Mae Pettway and Samuel Small. Bendolph grew up on a farm, along with her two siblings, David and Hazel. In her childhood, Bendolph was fascinated by quiltmaking. The artist later would describe fond memories of watching her mother and other relatives sew, while the children would play under the quilts.

At nineteen, the artist gave birth to a daughter (Sonda). A year later, Louisiana married Sonda's father. They had their second daughter, Melinda, in 1982. And in 1990 she gave birth to Merrianna. She had her last daughter, Alleeanna, in 1997.

In 1991, Louisiana Bendolph got a job at the Lee company. She worked at Lee, putting zippers and pockets into jeans, until the company moved that part of their operation abroad in 1997.

Quilt making remained an important part of Louisiana's world throughout her adult life. In the year following the birth of her first child, the artist made about eight quilts (which were mostly pattern quilts). When Louisiana moved from Gee's Bend to Mobile, she brought her quilt with her. The artist continued to make quilts in their new home.

In 2002, Louisiana attended a quilt exhibit in Houston with her mother. When they arrived in Houston, she saw a quilt book there with one of her pieces in it. The realization shocked her, and is something that the artist still has not gotten over when she sees her work on display. [6]

Related Research Articles

Quilt art, sometimes known as art quilting, mixed media art quilts or fiber art quilts, is an art form that uses both modern and traditional quilting techniques to create art objects. Practitioners of quilt art create it based on their experiences, imagery, and ideas, rather than traditional patterns. Quilt art generally has more in common with the fine arts than it does with traditional quilting. Quilt art is typically hung or mounted.

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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.

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<i>Blues</i> (print)

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<i>Forever (For Old Lady Sally)</i>

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<i>Sew Low</i>

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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.

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Annie Pettway Lewis Bendolph (1900–1981) was an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters. Her work is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to which it was donated by the Souls Grown Deep Foundation.

Aolar Carson Mosely was an American artist. She was a founding member of the Freedom Quilting Bee, and is associated with the Gee's Bend quiltmakers, along with her daughter Mary Lee Bendolph and her granddaughter Essie Bendolph Pettway. Almost all of her quilts were destroyed when her house burned down in 1984.

Nettie Jane Kennedy (1916–2002) was an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters.

Jessie T. Pettway is an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters.

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Nellie Mae Abrams (1946–2005) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective. Her art has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College, and is included in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She was the daughter of Annie Mae Young, who was also a quiltmaker.

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.

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.

Lucy T. Pettway (1921–2004) 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 Frist Art Museum, and is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lola Pettway is an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective, along with her mother, Allie Pettway. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Frist Art Museum, and is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lottie Mooney (1908–1992) was an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters. In 2010 her 1940 quilt "Housetop"—four-block "Half-Log Cabin" variation appeared in a US postage stamp series commemorating the quilters of Gee's Bend.

Annie Bell Pettway (1930–2003) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective, along with her daughter Belinda Pettway.

References

  1. ↑ Hales, Linda (February 25, 2006). "For gee's bend, a new twist". The Washington Post.
  2. 1 2 O'Sullivan, Michael (July 6, 2007). "'Gee's bend': A strong foundation". The Washington Post. ProQuest   410220644.
  3. ↑ "Louisiana Bendolph: Gee's Bend". Paulson Bott Press. Archived from the original on February 17, 2016. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  4. ↑ Schwendener, M. (February 20, 2015). "Alabama quilts, the new chapter". New York Times. ProQuest   1656246083.
  5. ↑ "The Baltimore Museum of Art". collection.artbma.org. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Louisiana P. Bendolph". Souls Grown Deep. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
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