African American Quilting: An Underappreciated Niche

The Nelson Art Gallery is currently running an exhibition titled, “African American Quilts.” The subject is self explanatory, the gallery was covered in hanging quilts, all of them similar in size and all apparently, as per the exhibit title, created by African Americans.

I hadn’t known such a niche existed in quilting, but upon further reading learned that quilting is a traditional art form of African Americans (mostly women), who for most of history could not be part of “high-style” art such as oil painting. Quilting, sewing together patches of worn cloth which could no longer serve their original function, was their art form. And the variation amongst the quilts showed that yes, there is definitely creativity involved with quilting alongside what must have been an intense and laborious process.

The first quilt I photographed was Black Man Burden, created by Hannah Wilcox and Lucy Wilcox, sharecropper and slave, respectively:





Spanning 81” x 74”, it was made circa 19th century from workman’s cotton twill denim pants, raw cotton batting, and feed sacks. The identification card further elaborated that it was created at the Wilcox Corner Plantation in Gee’s Bend, Alabama. I chose to photograph this one in particular because it was made to be a functioning quilt. It is not deliberately an art piece; it’s made of workmen’s old clothes and feed sacks, and yet it shows a certain rhythm and pattern which is unorchestrated but well-designed.

There is a rhythm to the choice in colors; the dark blue patch on the left is balanced by the varying blue hues on the right. It was a planned design, shown by the fact that no strips of the same blue touch. The two strips of sky blue at top and bottom frame the pattern of vertical stripes. Clearly, the Wilcoxes were working with what they had: they worked well with what they had. It is a work of art from necessity.

In direct contrast to Black Man Burden is Piano Keys, made in 2009 by Avis Collins Robinson:


Though similar in size, 108” x 77”, this quilt was made not with necessity but with art as priority. Even the materials show this; it was made with hand-dyed cotton corduroy and hand-dyed muslin for a backing. Black Man Burden reused old cloth, but the cloth for Piano Keys was painstakingly hand-dyed. In attempting to keep it home-made, Avis Collins Robinson missed the point that old quilts were made with scraps instead of specially-prepared strips of fabric.

The rhythm and patterning in this later quilt, however, is much more dramatic and well-planned. Avis Collins Robinson still alternates colors, but the fabric strips are even in width and smaller, so the rhythm seems quicker and more expanded because more strips could fit into the quilt’s frame. Simple blocks have become a rainfall of colors, the vividness of the contrasting blues, yellows, reds, and blacks suggesting much more animation than Black Man Burden. The unified size of the strips makes the pattern more solid and obvious than on the older quilt as well. Aesthetically, it’s more pleasing because of this unity; it’s easier to perceive the balance and flow of this work than the former.

It is impossible to say which is superior though, because they are so very different. They were made for different purposes, the cornerstone of designs, and as such have different inherent values. They are however part of the same community, part of African American art, and it is interesting to see how it grew from humble origins to become a recognized art form.