Show weaves fabric of women's history

The Rocky

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Willie "Ma Willie" Abrams' 1975 Roman Stripes variation, corduroy. /Collection of the Tinwood Alliance

Nancy Pettway's 2003 Housetop, corduroy and cotton twill. /Collection of the Tinwood Alliance

Photos By Stephen Pitkin, Pitkin Studio, Rockford, Ill.

Magdalene Wilson's 1925 Broken Star variation, cotton, wool and silk. /Collection of the Tinwood Alliance

The spiritual handprints of the women of Gee's Bend, Ala., are all over their work, handprints that tell of history, hardship and community.

They knew recycling before there was a word for it: These quiltmakers used beat-up work clothes and scraps from corduroy pillows, whatever material was at hand in their rural community.

But now, the women of Gee's Bend have hit celebrity status, which began in 2002 with the first touring museum exhibition of their work and continues with the second, "Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt," which opens Sunday at the Denver Art Museum.

Celebrity? The New York Times new Key magazine includes an ad for Gee's Bend rugs.

In installing this "Gee's Bend," Denver Art Museum textiles curator Alice M. Zrebiec puts first things first: An entry wall shows photographs of the women whose work is on display. It forms a grid, a metaphorical quilt of recognition for the artists. (Both "Gee's Bend" shows were organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Tinwood Alliance.)

Zrebiec trimmed the number of pieces to fit the Ponti Building's Stanton Gallery while keeping at least one example from each quilter represented. In several large galleries, she organizes by themes ranging from the type of design to the generational relationships of the quilters.

As the work spans the 1920s to 2005, the styles have taken on the strength of bloodlines.

"Gee's Bend" begins with a room of Work-Clothes quilts, denim and plain-cloth pieces that include patched portions and worn knees. It is denim made regal, and individual.

Then the show proceeds into the styles that prompted the "architecture" in the title. These are the strong geometric forms of the Housetop, Log Cabin and Bricklayer styles, where patterns approximate the way roofs and walls are constructed. The compositions are simple, the works for the most part bright and demonstrative of how a quilt is "built."

After that, Zrebiec draws on style as well as idiosyncratic spinoffs that begin with more universal patterns until the quilters "bend" the geometry. An example of this is Magdalene Wilson's 1925 variation on a Broken Star pattern, a complex quilt in which some of the dark pieces have bled into the light.

Also, various compare-and- contrast groupings demonstrate how family members can work in related styles or how generational links echo back to the matriarch of the community, the slave Dinah Miller, who arrived in Alabama in 1859 and whose descendants have carried on the art.

At times, the focus is on the type of material used, whether old basketball jerseys or scraps remaining from a 1970s cottage industry of pillow-making. Avocado rules there. Examples of less free-form patterns include one quilt that approximates a map of a homestead, from big house to cabins, the river to one side and fields to another.

The bottom line of this second visit to "Gee's Bend" is the basic democratic nature of the quilt, a form found in numerous societies throughout history. Some older quilts show the wear and grime of use, and it's rare to find edges that are straight. No machines made these.

"They weren't made to be put on these walls," said Zrebiec. "They just ended up here."

And in the process gave the women of Gee's Bend a universal voice.

Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt

* What: More than 40 quilts by the women of Gee's Bend, Ala., dating from the 1920s through 2005

* When and where: Sunday through July 6; Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave.

* Of note: Programming includes a family day June 7, a talk by six Gee's Bend quilters June 8 and "Untitled #16 (Thread)" June 27

* On stage: Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder's play Gee's Bend continues through April 19, Space Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex; 303-893-4100

* In relation: "Gee's Bend Quilts and Beyond" links work by two quilters with other artists, through May 11, Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe; 505-476-1200; internationalfolkart.org

* Information: 720-865-5000; denverartmuseum.org