I am pleased to share that two of my quilts are part of the exhibition, Losing the Compass, at White Cube's Mason's Yard space.
Read MoreFound/Made exhibition featured in Hi-Fructose
I am delighted to share that Hi-Fructose has done a feature on the upcoming exhibition Found/Made at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. Hi-Fructose highlights the work done by contemporary art and quiltmakers in the exhibition such as Joe Cunningham, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Luke Haynes, Clay Lohmann, Therese May, Sarah Nishiura, and Ben Venom. I'm excited to see their work together with others in July.
Read the article in Hi-Fructose.
Found/Made will be at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles from July 11 to November 1, 2015.
Sonoma Index-Tribune asks Kiracofe "why he finds such comfort in his vast collection of comforters"
Renowned quilt authority and collector Roderick Kiracofe hangs some quilts Wednesday as part of an exhibit at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. Image: Robbi Pengelly of Sonoma Index-Tribune.
The exhibition also titled Unconventional & Unexpected is finally up at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. The Sonoma Index-Tribune did a beautiful piece on the exhibition. They came with great questions.
Read more in the Sonoma Index-Tribune.
U&U is being exhibited simultaneously with Shaker Stories from the Collection of Benjamin H. Rose III. The Sonma Index-Tribune put together a beautiful gallery of images from both exhibitions.
“Why quilts?”
“How would 1950s and ’60s homemakers be so influenced by the modern art movement? I don’t recall June Cleaver hanging many Neo-Dadaist pieces in the living room.”
“How do the uses of color and pattern play out in this ‘below the radar’ modern art?”
Unconventional & Unexpected, the exhibition, runs from February 14 until May 17, 2015 at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.
"Some of these quilts did not even have straight sides!"
My quilts and words were featured amidst this conversation, "Reassessing the Revival," about the quilt revival in Antiques and The Arts Weekly. Here is an excerpt from Kate Eagen Johnson's depth article:
“Unconventional & Unexpected is dedicated to quilts of more recent vintage. About ten years ago, long-time quilt dealer Kiracofe literally woke up one day and thought ‘What were the ‘everyday quilts’ made from the 1950s to the end of the Twentieth Century like? And where they even made?’ He had ended his historical survey The American Quilt, 1993, with quilts from the 1940s because quilt dogma held that no good quilts were made after 1950.
Kiracofe began checking out quilts of a more recent vintage. Many, of course, were traditional in style and technique, but there were also ‘maverick’ quilts whose makers reveled in breaking the rules and in improvisation. The latter were the ones that appealed to him and he began buying them on eBay and through other means. Perhaps to the chagrin of Arts and Crafts purists, the makers of these objects did not always fashion quality, natural materials by hand. Many unabashedly delighted in polyester and rayon that they ornamented via machine stitching and appliqué. Some of these quilts did not even have straight sides!”
Janneken Smucker weighs in
“I had the pleasure of interviewing Roderick for my research for Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon about his role as a quilt dealer in the 1980s. Although Kiracofe and Kile did not specialize in Amish quilts, they bought and sold many of them, and convinced corporate buyers of their significance. In fact, the first substantial article I read about the Esprit Amish quilt collection was by Michael Kile, published in the 1983 Quilt Digest. The accompanying images of Esprit’s corporate headquarters filled with Amish quilts helped me build my argument about Esprit’s vital role in the promotion of quilts as art objects.”
Janneken and I at AQSG Seminar 2014, Milwaukee. Image courtesy of janneken.org.
I was so pleased when my friend and colleague Janneken Smucker agreed to write the "quilt history" essay for the book. She is doing an amazing job as part of the next generation of quilt historians. I have always enjoyed following her writing and projects. Be sure to include her newest book, Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon, in your quilt library.
Her blog post about Unconventional & Unexpected really captures what I hope people take away from U&U as she concludes: "I hope you join me in looking, reading, and thinking, and then behold these quilts as completely unexpected, yet just what you’ve been looking for."
Read her blog post here.
Okan Arts can't stop raving!
Image courtesy of Okan Arts
It is amazing to see the enthusiasm that Okan Arts' giveaway of Unconventional & Unexpected has generated! Thank you, all, for your kind comments. And thank you to Patricia Belyea for featuring U&U. You have until September 30 to enter. Just leave a comment with your thoughts on U&U to enter.
Here are some favorites:
“All of Roderick’s books are among my keepers, and they are old friends of mine.”
“A remarkable discovery that Roderick helped us see.”
“For the intrepid quilter this book makes the heart sing. Sumptous color and fabric and design that hums, nearly buzzes with life.”
“An amazing example of inspired collecting.”
“Quilts are about the people who made them and who used them, their lives, their history. To someone who tries to find a bit of magic in everything, a book about ‘quirky’ quilts sounds absolutely fascinating.”
“A wonderful collection of eye candy!”
You might remember that I wrote a guest blog recently for Okan Arts. Read it here.
"Quilt scholars are debunking a few myths" - The New York Times
I was excited to be included in Eve Khan's article about the exciting things happening with quilts this year. Her article, "Celebrating American Quilts in Shows and Books," highlights a variety of projects that are expanding the contemporary scholarship of American quiltmaking.
“People think of quilts as nostalgia, and we have to get beyond that,” the textiles historian and dealer Laura Fisher, who runs the Fisher Heritage gallery in New York, said while leafing through a coffee table book by one of her customers, the collector Roderick Kiracofe. The book, “Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang/Abrams), is full of bedcovers that she describes as “funky, maverick kind of quilts.”
Mr. Kiracofe has also heard his 300 pieces called “the ugly quilts,” he said in an interview. He started looking for unusual quilts in 2004, after decades of focusing on more traditional pre-1940s patchworks. Loud colors and asymmetrical stripes attract him, as do scraps of synthetic prints, perhaps recycled from 1950s upholstery and 1970s disco shirts.
Quilt from Unconventional & Unexpected
Unconventional & Unexpected launches!
Unconventional & Unexpected
American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000 has arrived!
Colleagues, Friends, and Family,
Ten amazingly talented and distinguished people participated with me to create a stunning book that adds to the written and visual scholarship of American quiltmaking in the last half of the 20th century. My sincere thanks go to Elissa Auther, Sherry Ann Byrd, Natalie Chanin, Ulysses Grant Dietz, Kaffe Fassett, Abner Nolan, Amelia Peck, Denyse Schmidt, Allison Smith, and Janneken Smucker.
The quilts that I have been collecting for the last 15 years sit alongside quilts that I borrowed from other collectors who share my fascination and passion for these works of art. These dynamic, quirky, and soulful quilts make up the beautiful pages of this exquisite coffee table book.
Who were the amazing makers who created these quilts to be used and slept under? How is it that these pieces share such strong similarities to modern and contemporary art? My hope is that you will enjoy and delight in seeing these quilts in new ways.
Expect the unexpected when turning the pages. These may not be what you think of when you hear the word “quilt.” Have you ever considered the back of a quilt or unfinished top? What about a quilt made from polyester double knit? Why did someone take a snapshot of a quilt on a clothesline?
Wait until you see what I have gathered for you!
Release date is 9 September 2014.
Purchasing Information
Unconventional & Unexpected is available at bookstores, fine museum shops, other specialty retailers, and online via Abrams Books.
Please support your local independant booksellers.