Edited with text by Pamela A. Parmal, Jennifer M. Swope, Lauren D. Whitley. Preface by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
Made by Americans of European, African, Native and Hispanic heritage, these quilts and bedcovers range from family heirlooms to acts of political protest, each with its own story to tell
A New York Magazine 2021 holiday gift guide pick
A mother stitches a few lines of prayer into a bedcover for her son serving in the Union army during the Civil War. A formerly enslaved African American woman creates a quilt populated by Biblical figures alongside celestial events. A quilted Lady Liberty, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln mark the resignation of Richard Nixon. These are just a few of the diverse and sometimes hidden stories of the American experience told by quilts and bedcovers from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Spanning more than 400 years, the 58 works of textile art in this book express the personal narratives of their makers and owners and connect to broader stories of global trade, immigration, industry, marginalization, and territorial and cultural expansion.
Artists include: Faith Ringgold, Sanford Biggers, Irene Williams, Bisa Butler, Harry Tyler, Harriet Powers, Marie D. Webster, Marguerite Zorach, Dorothy Phillips Haagensen, Rachel Cary George, Florence Peto, Creola Pettway, Susan Hoffman, Molly Upton, Nancy Crasco, Agusta Agustsson, Edward Larson, Michael James, Virginia Jacobs and Carla Hemlock.
Filled with photos of vibrant, historical and modern hand-stitched textile art.
Guardian
Kathryn Bromwich
Once a luxury item, since the 17th century quilts have evolved into a democratic art form that celebrates collaboration. Fabric of a Nation, a new book, brings together quilts spanning more than 300 years from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It’s a snapshot of America – Native American history, women’s suffrage, the construction of the railway, the civil rights movement. “Quilts are incredibly accessible objects,” says Jennifer M Swope, who curated the book and exhibition running in Boston. “They have been made and treasured by so many – rich and poor; women and men; urban and rural; white makers and artists of colour. In this way, quilts speak to many threads of the story of America.”
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All hail the MFA Boston Shop, our Museum Store of the Month, September 2022. Housed in one of the greatest and most comprehensive art museums in the world—with a collection that encompasses nearly 500,000 works of art—the MFAShop reflects all of the complexity, scholarship, experimentation, history and discovery of the MFA's renowned collection, "telling a multifaceted story of the human experience—a story that holds unique meaning for everyone." continue to blog
Made around 1955, this Bricklayer or Courthouse Steps quilt from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, is reproduced from Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories, published to accompany the highly anticipated exhibition opening Sunday, October 10, at MFA Boston. Spanning 400 years of quilt-making by Americans of European, African, Native and Hispanic heritage, this enlightening volume focuses on 58 quilts “unlike any other in the world,” to quote novelist Alice Walker. This particular quilt was probably made by Creola Bennett Pettway in the mid-1950s. “A sophisticated arrangement of red and white cotton strips, its color blocks form a dynamic hourglass shape in a minimalist composition that would rival any abstract painting. Typical of Gee’s Bend, Creola Pettway came from a long line of prolific quilt makers including her mother, Delia Bennett. Steeped in quilt making from an early age, Creola remembered her mother had four quilt frames and encouraged her daughters to help with quilting the corners. Later, as a master quilter herself, Creola took pride in the free-form creativity required to compose her works, recalling that she would ‘decide in my mind the way I want that quilt. When I decide the way I want it, I can make it. You can do things out of your head.’”
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.75 x 10.5 in. / 240 pgs / 120 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $63 GBP £35.00 ISBN: 9780878468768 PUBLISHER: MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston AVAILABLE: 6/1/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Edited with text by Pamela A. Parmal, Jennifer M. Swope, Lauren D. Whitley. Preface by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
Made by Americans of European, African, Native and Hispanic heritage, these quilts and bedcovers range from family heirlooms to acts of political protest, each with its own story to tell
A New York Magazine 2021 holiday gift guide pick
A mother stitches a few lines of prayer into a bedcover for her son serving in the Union army during the Civil War. A formerly enslaved African American woman creates a quilt populated by Biblical figures alongside celestial events. A quilted Lady Liberty, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln mark the resignation of Richard Nixon. These are just a few of the diverse and sometimes hidden stories of the American experience told by quilts and bedcovers from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Spanning more than 400 years, the 58 works of textile art in this book express the personal narratives of their makers and owners and connect to broader stories of global trade, immigration, industry, marginalization, and territorial and cultural expansion.
Artists include: Faith Ringgold, Sanford Biggers, Irene Williams, Bisa Butler, Harry Tyler, Harriet Powers, Marie D. Webster, Marguerite Zorach, Dorothy Phillips Haagensen, Rachel Cary George, Florence Peto, Creola Pettway, Susan Hoffman, Molly Upton, Nancy Crasco, Agusta Agustsson, Edward Larson, Michael James, Virginia Jacobs and Carla Hemlock.
