Art Quilts – a giant step forward
passages quilt
“While quilts that can be considered works of art have been made throughout the course of quilt history, the involvement of academically trained artists with the medium is a relatively new phenomenon.” Quilts a Living Tradition, 1995, Robert Shaw, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Beaux Arts Editions.
Starting in the late 1960’s there emerged a persistent and widespread group of quilt makers, museum curators and art critics and collectors who were determined to open the doors and windows of the “historic” quilting tradition to let in, or perhaps to let free the increasing waves of quilting energy that seemed poised to flood the quilting world as it existed back forty years ago.
Facing considerable resistance, some of it quite strident and even malicious, this growing shift towards freedom and experimentation in quilting methods, mediums, attitudes, standards and viewpoints gathered a lot of momentum. Coupled with the changing social landscape of 70’s and 80’s, in retrospect we now see it was inevitable that liberal ideas could not bypass the treasured and deeply rooted traditions of quilts and quilt making.
This infectious trend of freedom to be creative in whatever ways they want has helped countless people discover the artist within. In the quilt making sphere, some of the results of complete artistic freedom are quilts that are truly works of art. The terms contemporary art quilts and contemporary or modern quilt art are now quite broadly used to describe unprecedented innovations in permanently connecting 2 or more layers of product. Like many other words in our dictionaries, the word quilt is evolving. Broader definitions and usages are normal growth in any language. Why should the word quilt be any different.
