Strip Medallion quilt

1976
Not on view
This quilt started William Arnett, the founder of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, on his quest to collect and exhibit quilts made in the Gee’s Bend area. In 1997 he saw an image of Young with this quilt draped over her woodpile in order to display it to visiting quilt historian and photographer Roland L. Freeman. Arnett was so struck by the extraordinary vitality of the medallion quilt, with its glowing center of strips of corduroy surrounded by a wide border of pieced denim, that he arranged to visit Young. That visit, and the purchase of this work, led to Arnett meeting more than 150 other quilt makers from the area. In the course of many visits over a four-year period, he purchased hundreds of quilts, twenty of which are now in The Met’s collection.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Strip Medallion quilt
  • Artist: Annie Mae Young (American, Boykin, Alabama 1928–2012 Alberta, Alabama)
  • Date: 1976
  • Medium: Top: cotton and cotton-polyester blend; back: cotton-polyester blend
  • Dimensions: 8 ft. 8 1/2 in. × 77 in. (265.4 × 195.6 cm)
  • Classification: Textiles
  • Credit Line: Gift of Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2014
  • Object Number: 2014.548.57
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.