Missouri Pettway | |
---|---|
Born | 1902[1] |
Died | 1981[2] |
Nationality | American |
Known for | Quilting |
Movement | Gee's Bend Collective |
Missouri Pettway (1902-1981) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective. In 2020, the National Gallery of Art acquired two of Missouri Pettway's quilts, along with work by other quilters from Gee's Bend. [3] Her 1971 work titled "Path through the Woods" (Quiltmaker's Name) was featured in the Gallery's 2022 exhibition, Called to Create: Black Artist of the American South, September 18, 2022 – March 26, 2023, curated by Harry Cooper. [4]
Boykin, also known as Gee's Bend, is an African American majority community and census-designated place in a large bend of the Alabama River in Wilcox County, Alabama. As of the 2020 census, its population was 208. The Boykin Post Office was established in the community in 1949 and remains active, servicing the 36723 ZIP code.
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.
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.
Blues is a 2007 print by Gee's Bend quilter Loretta Pettway Bennett located on the Eskenazi Health campus, near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, and is part of the Eskenazi Health Art Collection.
Sew Low is a 2011-2012 quilt by Gee's Bend quilter Loretta Pettway Bennett. It is located on the Eskenazi Health campus, near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, and is part of the Eskenazi Health Art Collection.
Vegetation is a 2009 quilt by Gee's Bend quilter Loretta Pettway Bennett. It is located on the Eskenazi Health campus, near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, and is part of the Eskenazi Health Art Collection.
Loretta Pettway is an American artist and quilt maker of the Gee's Bend Collective from Boykin, Alabama. Her quilts are known for their bold and improvisational style.
Loretta Pettway Bennett is an American artist. She is associated with the Freedom Quilting Bee, where her mother, Qunnie Pettway, worked, and with the Gee's Bend quilt-makers. Her quilts Sew Low and Vegetation are part of the Eskenazi Health Art Collection.
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.
Martha Jane Pettway (1898–2003) was an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters. Pettway was born in Gee's Bend, Alabama and lived her entire life there. Her work is included in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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.
Jessie T. Pettway is an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters.
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.
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.
Flora Moore 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.
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.
Pearlie Kennedy Pettway (1920–1982) was an American quilter. She was among the quilters of Gee's Bend. Her works are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lucy P. Pettway (1930–2003) was an American quilter. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective. Pettway's quilt titled Housetop - Nine-Block Half-Log Cabin Variation, is the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art.