The Quilts of Gee’s Bend

The Quilts of Gee’s Bend…
features a selection of 20th century quilts produced by the women of Gee’s Bend, a small, isolated community in southwestern Alabama. The origins of the Benders, as they call themselves, date to the early 1800s. In the 1960’s, the Civil Rights movement helped spawn the Freedom Quilting Bee, a quilt-making cooperative that employed the women of Gee’s Bend. As their quilts began appearing in eastern department stores and elsewhere in the United States, the Benders’ prodigious talent and unique designs earned widespread recognition.

Ultimately the requirement to reproduce identical examples of the same quilt proved incompatible with their individualistic approach. The Bee did, however, have one important consequence: the women began to use corduroy, a fabric that inspired a new chapter in their quilt-making history.

One section of the exhibition is dedicated entirely to the corduroy quilts. Others present memorable examples of “Workclothes” quilts, styles known as “Triangles” and “Housetop,” as well as more eccentric designs in groups labeled “Patterns” and “My Way.” Overall, the quilts demonstrate a distinctive art form that encourages comparison with other genres, particularly modernist abstract painting. Unlike abstract painters, however, the Gee’s Bend women created their quilts out of necessity and practical considerations. Their focus on such everyday concerns as salvaging discarded fabric, recycling old clothing, and finding ways to keep their families warm and comfortable makes the extraordinary aesthetic appeal of their quilts even more remarkable.

For more information, see www.corcoran.org.