Excerpt from "A Visit with Quilters in Alabama"

their stitches may not be perfectly sewn and their edges not always even but the beauty of these quilts aren't in the technique the beauty much like jazz is intuitive vibrant improvisational African American quilt michael talked about playing colors as almost as if their musical instruments robert cargo a former university professor and full cart gallery owner in Tuscaloosa Alabama has assembled one of the most important quilt collections in the United States began collecting quilts and my wife and I both were from Alabama and it seemed natural that we focus on Alabama quilts everybody was getting a central heat and they had large stocks of quilts that they no longer needed and so I would watch the newspapers for garage sales or yard sales and I never failed to find just exceedingly beautiful quilts these quilts came from the hands of women who were of necessity making quilts for family covers we needed the quilt to keep one sometimes we had fire crews on cargo found that these quilts offered more than just warmth their creativity expressed a style a culture and a tradition that transforms them into works of art they have made dozens and dozens of just exceptional quilts Larissa Outland who is one hundred years old Mary Maxton and Roberta Jemison were prolific in their work and dr. cargo became their ardent patron he bought over eight quills for me it was then he come back and got some make quilts and I make quilts to tell stories Yvonne Wells a retired school teacher is another of doctor cargos discoveries who has gained recognition as an international folk artist in 1985 after his insistence I showed at Kentuck and that year won best of show I think it was the purity of my work that caught the attention of the judges I think it was the simplest of it and the honesty of it her bold improvisational quilts tells stories based largely on socio-political and biblical themes I think the piece that is tamama and the best is the being in total control of herself it shows miss Liberty the Statue of Liberty holding a fistful of dollars in one hand and a black baby in the other it's a powerful piece of work there's a thing called the three Aegis hit heart in hand when my head sees my heart feels and my hand created I like to think of them as kind of metaphors for for liberty and freedom here I can do exactly what I want I set the I'll make the rules and I can break them if I want to and and nobody can do anything about it

Channel: Montclair Art Museum

Views: 19,870

Rating: 4.9506173 out of 5

Keywords: Quilting, montclair, montclair art museum, MAM, quilt, Quilt Museum And Gallery (Location), Mary Maxtion, Roberta Jemison, Yvonne Wells, African-American

Id: 9GurMFb66DA

Length: 3min 13sec (193 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 12 2014