This quilt, with its engaging overall design composed of eight Housetop blocks, was made with corduroy remnants from a large job undertaken by the Freedom Quilting Bee, a cooperative founded in 1966 to help local women make money to support their families. In 1972 the large department store chain Sears-Roebuck and Company placed an order with the cooperative for thousands of corduroy pillow covers. Leftover pieces of fabric from the job were sold to the quilters at bargain prices; tiny scraps were given away. As a result, many quilts from the mid-1970s incorporate pieces of Sears corduroy. Often in saturated shades typical of the era, the fabric brought an entirely new aesthetic to many of the quilters’ works.
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the artist, Gee's Bend, Ala.; her cousin, Linda Pettway, Gee's Bend, Ala. (until 1999; in 1999 to Arnett); William S. Arnett, Atlanta (1999–2002; his gift in 2002 to Tinwood Alliance); Tinwood Alliance, Atlanta (2002–10; transfer in 2010 to Souls Grown Deep); Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Atlanta (2010–14; their gift to MMA)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," September 8–November 10, 2002, unnumbered cat. (p. 161; attributed to Linda Pettway; lent by the Tinwood Alliance, Atlanta).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," November 21, 2002–March 9, 2003, unnumbered cat.
Mobile, Ala. Mobile Museum of Art. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," June 14–August 31, 2003, unnumbered cat.
Milwaukee Art Museum. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," September 27, 2003–January 4, 2004, unnumbered cat.
Washington, D.C. Corcoran Gallery of Art. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," February 14–May 17, 2004, unnumbered cat.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," June 27–September 12, 2004, unnumbered cat.
Norfolk, Va. Chrysler Museum of Art. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," October 15, 2004–January 2, 2005, unnumbered cat.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," February 13–May 8, 2005, unnumbered cat.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," June 1–August 21, 2005, unnumbered cat.
Auburn, Ala. The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," September 11–December 4, 2005, unnumbered cat.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," March 25–June 18, 2006, unnumbered cat.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," July 15–November 12, 2006, unnumbered cat.
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," September 6, 2007–January 7, 2008, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "History Refused to Die: Highlights from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation Gift," May 22–September 23, 2018, unnumbered cat. (pl. 39).
Jane Livingston inThe Quilts of Gee's Bend. Ed. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Atlanta, 2002, p. 55, ill. p. 161 (color).
Jane Livingston inGee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts. Ed. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Atlanta, 2002, p. 57, ill. p. 189 (color), attributes it to Linda Pettway.
Amelia Peck inMy Soul Has Grown Deep: Black Art from the American South. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2018, pp. 79, 108, colorpl. 39.
Roberta Smith. "A Testament to Those Once Neglected." New York Times (May 28, 2018), p. C16, ill. p. C13 (color).
Elizabeth Pochoda. "Art Without Adjectives." Magazine Antiques 185 (July/August 2018), pp. 106–113, fig. 8 (color).
Karen Wilkin. "A Visual Equivalent of Jazz." Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2018), p. A13.
Faith Ringgold (American, New York, 1930–2024 Englewood, New Jersey)
1985
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