Patterns in Abstraction: Black Quilts from the High’s Collection

This quilt is inspired by a quilt pattern known as Birds in the Air or Flying Geese because of how its triangular patches evoke the movement of migrating birds. The careful distribution of alternating colors and uniformly cut and pieced triangular patches exemplifies Lucy T. Pettway’s reputation as a perfectionist within the legendary quilting community of Boykin, Alabama, that became known as Gee’s Bend. Pettway worked for the Freedom Quilting Bee, established in Wilcox County in 1966 to help quilters earn living wages from textile production and raise money for the Civil Rights Movement. She was influenced by the patterned quilts produced at the Bee in addition to a pattern book her aunt had received from a White family whose home she tended to across the river in Camden. Quilts like this one exemplify how Pettway blended meticulous pattern work with dynamic color schemes and unconventional designs—which often privileged rhythm over symmetry—for which Gee’s Bend quilts are known.

Lucy T. Pettway
American, 1921–2004
Birds in the Air, 1981
Cotton and cotton-polyester blend
Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S.Arnett Collection, 2017.70

In most quilts there is a clear difference between the more decorative and often labor-intensive design of the quilt top and the less detailed backing constructed from larger pieces of fabric. This quilt is distinguished by its two tops: The Housetop medley in muted tones of olive, cream, and brown is meticulously pieced from older fabrics. The contrasting side features one halved Housetop and many checked blocks in the One Patch style. The predominant use of polyester fabrics and less uniform stitching suggests the One Patch side might have been created later by a younger friend, relative, or caretaker of the original top.

Maker once known
Purchased in Alabama
Multiple Housetop, 1920s
Cotton
Gift of Corrine Riley on the occasion of Collectors Evening 2017, 2017.198

A fourth-generation quilter, Louisiana Bendolph was greatly influenced by her predecessors, including her mother-in-law, Mary Lee Bendolph. Yet as a young adult, Louisiana stopped her practice to focus on work and caring for her growing family, who possessed ample quilts and lived in homes with central heating and air. In 2002, she traveled to Texas to see The Quilts of Gee’s Bend at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and was brought to tears by the inclusion of her grandmother Annie E. Pettway: “When she had died, she was just ‘Mama,’ but now she had been reborn as someone who people were respecting, and all of a sudden she was important to other people in a way she had only been to us. [. . .] She is now known all over the world. In a way, she’s alive in that quilt,” she said. Louisiana resumed her quilting practice soon after.

This quilt deviates from traditional Housetop compositions by introducing a unique element: an extended black border framing the colorful central arrangement of blocks and strips, setting off its colors so that it appears like a panel of stained glass. Louisiana frequently creates pieces to deconstruct later, redistributing their parts into new quilts, as she did with this one.

Louisiana Bendolph
American, born 1960
Blocks and Strips Medallion, 2003
Cotton and polyester fabric
Purchase with funds from Peggy, Margaret, and Mary Rawson Foreman and gift of the artist and the Tinwood Alliance in honor of Rawson Foreman, 2005.301

Annie Mae Young, a renowned master quilter from Gee’s Bend, was known for her unique approach to quilting and independent spirit. She did not fit in with members of the community who worked for the Freedom Quilting Bee, preferring to follow her own creative path, exemplified in the nonconformist stitching of this quilt. “I never did like the book patterns some people had. Those things had too many little bitty blocks. I like big pieces and long strips,” she said. “I work it out, study the way to make it, get it to be right, kind of like working a puzzle.” Young constructed the bottom right corner-border of this quilt partially from a blue fabric printed with white stars, reminiscent of the canton (top inner quarter) of the United States flag. This hints at the quilt’s patriotic verso, in which the blue and white-starred print and the large blocks of red and white gingham fabric create an abstract portrait of the American flag.

Annie Mae Young
American, 1928–2013
Housetop, undated
Fabric
Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S.Arnett Collection, 2017.79

Early in her career, Marquetta Johnson learned dyeing techniques from a South African artist working at the now defunct Neighborhood Arts Center in Summerhill, Atlanta. As she refined those methods to make them more sustainable, Johnson became renowned for her fabrics across national quilting communities, catching the attention of the celebrated artist Faith Ringgold, who began sourcing fabric from her. Johnson later published a book documenting her dyeing process for which she created hundreds of sample swatches, later using them as patches in this symmetrical and challenging version of a Nine Patch pattern. Many quilters learn the basics of piecing by starting with Nine Patch blocks, which are formed from nine equal square patches, but Johnson turned this simple pattern into the largest quilt she has ever made, challenging herself to focus on a monumental artistic goal while she was also mourning the loss of her son. Within each of the fifty-six Nine Patch blocks, she created dynamic compositions, joining cut pieces of her dyed swatches together. The variety of color and line speaks to the resilience of the human spirit, even as it is forced to move through grief.

Marquetta Johnson
American, born 1955
Nine Patch, 2016–2018
Hand-dyed and hand-painted cotton fabric
Gift of the artist, 2022.204