R E V I E W E D
D
p
i
«
ITm
c
•
International Quilt Study
L
v l u U C v l l V v d t
Center
&
Museum
a
Lincoln, NE
A r t , C r illt
,
N o v .
21
,
2009
- M a y p ,
2
oic
D e s ig n & th e
G
len
R
Brown
S tu d io Q u ilt
If surface stitching has its lineage in a craft
context and the utilitarian nature of hatting, fhe
works in “Perspectives”suggest that fhe studio
quilt perpetuates the technique principally for
its expressive potential.
With nearly two dozen contemporary
works from the International Quilt Study
Center and Museum’s permanent collec-
tion, “Perspectives: Art, Craft, Design &
the Studio Quilt” generates a visual impact
consonant with the monumentality of the
museum’s spacious galleries. As expected,
the center’s holdings—anchored by an initial
1997 gift of almost a thousand quilts from
the Ardis and Robert James collection and
augmented by more than a decade of acqui-
sitions from major artists—have furnished
a top-notch survey of work by prominent
makers of the contemporary studio quilt.
The exhibition’s organizers, Michael James
and Sandra Sider, have, however, aspired
to more than a dazzling display of the cen-
ter’s gems. As its title suggests, “Perspec-
tives” situates the quilts in relation to almost
a dozen paintings, sculptures and works in
glass, precious metal and ceramics in order
to stimulate reflection on the relationship
of the studio quilt to the categories of art,
craft and design.
The first work one encounters, Terrie
Hancock Mangat’s
Lake Superior Stick Bed
and Quilt,
serves both as reminder of the
quilt’s utilitarian origins and comment on
how dramatically its role has been recast
by the studio quilt movement. Consisting
of a quilt intricately sewn from twig-shaped
patches of fall-colored fabric and neatly
draped over a bed with headboard painted
in matching autumnal hues and encrusted
like a reliquary with segments of branches,
the piece seems more easily reconciled
with sculpture than domestic furniture.
Context—both the white-walled gallery
space in which Mangat’s work is situated
and the studio tradition in which her quilt
fundamentally participates—is undoubt-
edly a key factor in the impression. In this
respect, the piece functions as an important,
perhaps even necessary prelude to the other
quilts, all of which were from the outset
destined to grace gallery walls and never
touch a mattress.
The exhibition invokes the issue of art
most directly through comparison between
quilts and paintings, particularly those
in the vein of geometric abstraction. The
optical vibration of Ellen Oppenheimer’s
Pit' Block
#5 rivals the effect of disembodied
color and abstract energy in a juxtaposed
Synchromist painting by Morgan Russell,
and the dusky hues and geometrically
subdivided rippling pattern of Jan Myers-
032 american craft apr/mayio
Photos courtesy of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum.
