QUILTS OF GEE’S BEND
ARRIVE IN EAST ALABAMA

"The Quilts of Gee's Bend" are on exhibit through Dec. 4 at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art.

The exhibition features more than 60 quilts designed and handmade by African-American women living in the small rural community of Gee’s Bend, nestled along the Alabama River southwest of Selma.

Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend” has been traveling in the United States for the past three years. Destinations in its 12-city tour have included The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Newsweek, National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation, CBS News Sunday Morning, the Martha Stewart Living television show, Oprah’s O magazine, and Country Home magazine are among the hundreds of print and broadcast media organizations that have lauded the Gee’s Bend exhibit.

The Women's Studies department in AU's College of Liberal Arts, which has extensively researched the quilts of Gee's Bend for years, is a major contributor to the renown of the quilts. Visit www.auburn.edu/geesbend to examine the academic, social and research perspectives, plus see a schedule of events.

Founded in antebellum times, the area was the site of cotton plantations, primarily the lands of Joseph Gee and his relative Mark Pettway, who bought the Gee estate in 1850. After the Civil War, the freed slaves took the name Pettway, became tenant farmers for the Pettway family and founded an all-black community nearly isolated from the surrounding world. During the Great Depression, the federal government stepped in to purchase land and homes for the community.

The town’s women developed a distinctive, bold and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American (and African-American) quilts, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of modern art.

The quilters worked with fabrics reflective of their everyday lives, such as worn-out work clothes, old denim, grain sacks, corduroy and cotton sheets. The quilts were designed for practicality, yet their visual power has elevated them to artistic masterpieces. Together they represent a distinct artistic tradition and design sensibility, exquisite craftsmanship and a dialogue addressing composition and pattern that spans generations. According to Michael Kimmelman, art critic for The New York Times, the quilts in the exhibition are “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.”

Sponsorship for the exhibition in Auburn is provided by Regions Bank of Lee County. The national tour is sponsored by the Tinwood Alliance of Atlanta.

“I am delighted that the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art is able to provide this extraordinary exhibition,” said Michael Panhorst, the museum’s director. “These are exceptional quilts made by remarkable artists. We are fortunate that these women have maintained an unbroken artistic tradition into the 21st century.”

In conjunction with “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend” exhibition, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art will host a series of lectures, films and other events celebrating the exhibition. For more information, visit www.julecollinssmithmuseum.com or call (334) 844-1484.