Patterns in Abstraction: Black Quilts from the High’s Collection
June 28, 2024 – January 5, 2025
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
For more than a century, the potential kinship between quilts and abstract painting has sparked lively debate. Although the color-rich geometric patchwork of quilts is visually resonant with examples of abstract painting often credited as pinnacles of artistic innovation, many have argued that such comparisons fail to honor the integrity of quilts within their distinct conditions of production. Quilts made by Black women have too often been left out of the conversation altogether, a reflection of how they have also been underrepresented in art museum collections.
The High has collected great examples of Black quilts since the 1980s and over the past six years has more than quintupled its holdings to ensure that Black quilts have a continually rotating presence in the museum’s collection galleries. This collection-based exhibition is the first to bring a number of these recent acquisitions together to answer a larger question: “How can quilts made by Black women change the way we tell the history of abstract art?” A corresponding publication through LINK, the museum’s platform for online engagement, multimedia content related to the High’s expanded and growing collection of Black quilts.
More information can be found online here.
Image: Maker Once Known, Untitled (Housetop Quilt with Multiple Borders), ca. 1940s, cotton, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase through funds provided by patrons of Collectors Evening 2017, 2017.183.
