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Also this issue: 25 Alive Strange New World Roughing It Rock Out Philling the Gaps |
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July 18-24, 2002
art
AT THE CUTTING EDGE: THE STATE OF THE ART QUILT Through July 28, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, 220 S. 34th St., 215-898-2083
The current status and nature of contemporary art quilts reflect the feminist art movement of the second half of the 20th century and the related pattern and decoration (P&D) movement, as well as the international rise of studio crafts. Women working as traditional quilters were encouraged to take their work, which had always reflected their personal, social and political lives, more seriously. Artists -- not previously quilters -- were drawn to the sensuous beauty of fabrics and handsewing.
Of the six accomplished quilters who are showing small, pictorial wall pieces at Arthur Ross Gallery, Emily Richardson is the only one who does everything by hand, with fabric, needle and thread. Her atmospheric, hand-painted layered silks and cottons are appliquéd using a straight tacking stitch, which I call the "Frankenstein stitch" because of its resemblance to Boris Karloff's makeup in the old movie. This stitch leaves the raw cut edge of fabric exposed. The loose threads, in conjunction with the colored Frankenstein threads, subtly segue between the blocky color areas in Richardson's abstracted, almost cubist compositions.
It is the rare artist who can avoid kitschy cleverness in machine quilting and embroidery. Machine piecing, on the other hand, is more durable than handwork, equally agile and has the advantage of being virtually invisible. Deborah Schwartzman's best work in this show combines machine quilting and embroidery, as well as beads, to sumptuous effect. Nature's Lace, a flower piece like all Schwartzman's subjects, uses bold color and texture to suggest the magic of nature.
Rich neutrals in carefully calculated arranged compositions, Japanese imagery like ginkgo leaves, and titles like Wabi, a word relating to the aesthetic of simplicity and worn things, characterize the quilts of graphic designer Lonni Rossi. Cindy Friedman has a fine sense of color and composition and handles a sewing machine with impressive skill; however, her work would be more satisfying if she did not trivialize many of her compositions with hokey, schematized human figures. A larger piece, In the Presence, is her most effective quilt in the show.
Amy Orr applies traditional quilting techniques to patterned stuff such as plastic twist ties and dollar bills. These everyday objects make statements about society and its patterns in ways that reflect the spirit of historic quilts. They are simultaneously beautiful objects and incisive social statements.
At the farthest distance from a traditional quilter, Leslie Pontz arranges collages of fabric strips in open rectilinear 3-D patterns, framed, under glass. These collages are tasteful and pleasing. "At the Cutting Edge" is a fine introduction to some outstanding quilters and the spectrum of the possibilities in the field of contemporary quilting.
