March Issue 2001
Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC, is Featuring a Major Quilt Exhibition and a New Installation from its Permanent Collection
The Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC, is proud to announce the opening of the exhibition, 150 Years of North Carolina Quilts. This show celebrates the ingenuity, individuality and beauty of these quilts made for daily use and is on view at the museum from Mar. 11 through Apr. 22, 2001. Home of the Muses: Selections from the Permanent Collection, is an offering from the Museum's Permanent Collection.
The 48 quilts in the exhibition were selected from a total of 102 given to North Carolina State University over the past year by Dr. A. Everette James, Jr. and Dr. Nancy Farmer in memory of his mother, Pattie Royster James. A quilter herself, Mrs. James started her son collecting when she suggested a quilt exhibition for St. James Place, the Primitive Baptist church once attended by her mother, aunt and uncle. Dr. James acquired the church when services were discontinued in the 1980s, restored it, and opened it as a museum for North Carolina pottery, quilts and folk art. To this collection he brought the same gusto and perseverance with which he pursued his other collecting passions: North Carolina pottery, 19th and early 20th century American furniture and art, particularly Southern women painters, folk art and outsider art. James started to collect by attending local county fairs. Inspired by the quilts he found, he acquired both more quilts and growing expertise. His plan was to collect quilts from all 100 North Carolina counties - a goal he will surely reach given his love for the textiles and the enthusiasm he has for the search. An early partner in his travels was his large yellow Labrador retriever, Mr. Grady. A book of humorous stories, Tales from the Dismal Swamp, based on his conversations with Grady was published last fall.
To curate this exhibition, the Visual Arts Center at NC State called upon Robert Bryan, a NC State graduate with dual degrees from the College of Design and the College of Textiles. He was an intern at the gallery for four semesters, and during that time he researched and curated an exhibition of Coptic textiles from the permanent collection. Bryan presently serves as a manufacturer's liaison for Oshkosh B'Gosh.
Gifted with an unwavering sense of good design, a remarkable visual memory and an extensive knowledge of fabrics and techniques, Bryan brought a fresh eye to selecting the quilts. In his catalogue essay, The Divine Design of the Everyday, he explains the observations that guided his selections, "Within the larger body of this wonderful collection were quilts that showed bravura in craft, elements of elegance in the raw material selections, or intriguing patterns. The quilts that were truly outstanding, however, also demonstrated improvisation within the context of established patterns and traditional use."
The quilts range in age from a "whole cloth" quilt made in 1820 - 1830 to a Drunkard's Path quilt made circa 1970. In the former, a central copperplate printed floral fabric panel is flanked by two side panels cut from a complementary geometrically patterned fabric. It is bound in a third fabric and quilted in a large zigzag pattern. The colors are burnished oranges, browns, creams and teal. Very simple in construction, seemingly made for use and not show, this quilt nonetheless wasn't used and survives in excellent condition. The Drunkard's Path quilt fared less well in its wear, but is a strikingly graphic combination of plain orange and navy fabrics. The pattern gets its name from the way its square pieces are dissected by circles. The blocks are rotated to create a decidedly staggering effect.
In between, quilts with names like Rob Peter to Pay Paul, Sprocket (or Wheel of Fortune), Hill and Hollow, Flying Geese, Kansas Dugout, Winding Blades and Rail Fence display the personal adaptations of their makers. Stars are interpreted as Blazing Star, Star Variation, Lone Star and Eight Point Star and there are Double and Quadruple Irish Chain quilts. Variations of the ever favorite Crazy Quilt include fragments of a Friendship Quilt top apparently made by women with time to embroider and embellish their pieces and one, attributed to an African American maker that is made with materials at hand, is no less elegant in color tonalities and overall abstract cohesiveness.
Bryan captures the essence of this striking exhibition with the words concluding his catalogue essay, "This is the power of quilts. They capture us with their everydayness and their magic."
The Visual Arts Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, organized this exhibition.
The PBS film entitled America Quilts, circa 1999, will be shown each Sunday afternoon at 2pm at the Asheville Art Museum during the exhibition. It is free with paid museum admission. The 80 minute film celebrates the artists, the quilts and the powerful stories woven into them. This program examines quilts from three perspectives; as historical records, symbols of family and community and as works of art.
Home of the Muses: Selections from the Permanent Collection is the third exhibition drawn from the Asheville Art Museum's permanent collection developed by a guest curator. This year's guest curator is Dr. Anthony Janson, Professor of Art History at UNC-Wilmington and revising editor for Janson's Art History.
Janson says that "Quality, authenticity and importance lie at the heart of an art museum's mission to collect, conserve and educate. Quality is more than a matter of technical skill. Art appeals not only to the senses but also the imagination and intellect, and in the process reveals something of interest and value about the human condition."
This installation features 70 works from the collection of over 1800 objects, including paintings, prints, sculpture, glass and ceramics. Dr. Janson selected objects that have been in the Museum's permanent collection for decades as well as a number of works that were acquired in the past year. Many of the works were gifts from members of the Asheville and the Western North Carolina community. The installation includes works by nationally known artists including George Inness, Robert Henri, Max Weber, Jules Olitski, Grant Wood and also includes works by artists who have lived or worked in Western North Carolina such as Randy Shull, Mark Peiser, Kenneth Noland, David Nelson and Josef and Anni Albers.
The installation is organized around some of the themes and movements that influenced American art over the past 120 years. American Barbizon Painting looks at the American landscape as it was depicted in the late l9th and early 20th centuries. The Rise of Modernism shows the influence of European art as well as home grown movements such as the Ash Can school. The Depression Era and World War II examines the role of the arts in one of the most tumultuous periods of American history, in particular, how the government supported artists in the 1930s. The last segment discusses The Rise of African American Art over the past fifty years, including work by Romare Bearden, born in NC, and Jacob Lawrence, who taught at Black Mountain College.
In upcoming months, the Asheville Art Museum will offer many special programs relating to this installation of the permanent collection commencing with a series of Friday evening talks by artists whose works are included in the Museum's permanent collection. Dr. Janson remarked, "Museums are homes of the muses. They are places of inspiration, wonderment, and learning. It is my hope that visitors will come away with the same sense of pleasure I had in discovering this collection. I also hope that visitors will be moved to support this excellent and well-run museum, which represents the Asheville area with such distinction."
In addition to the exhibition catalogues, the Asehville Art Museum Shop will feature books and other items related to the exhibitions as well as current books on American art of the twentieth century. Museum members receive a 10% discount on all purchases. Proceeds from the Museum Shop support the Museum's public programs.
For further information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings or call the museum at 828/253-3227.
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