The Charleston Museum will debut its latest exhibition, The Art of Abstraction: Modernism in Quilting, on Saturday, January 20th. The exhibit is a collaboration with the Gibbes Museum of Art and will showcase the artistic beauty of abstract artwork alongside the Museum’s quilts. It will be on display through September 15, 2024.
Quilting has always been a means of creative expression, uniting color and pattern to form an object of purpose. Just as paint on canvas functions, the fabric pieces often work as artistic parameters, testing the visual acuity and imagination of the individual. The impression of quilts as simple crafts or 'women’s work' began to shift in the early 1970s as 20th-century modern art movements changed the perception of textile art. Quilts were no longer viewed solely as bed coverings for warmth but as art in their own right.
Today, the work is divided into categories: traditional quilts that are functional and follow historic patterns, art quilts designed as wall hangings for decoration, and modern quilts created from newly invented patterns that may serve as blankets, decor, or both. Despite these relatively recent distinctions, creativity has never been limited by theory.
The Charleston Museum’s 180+ historic quilt collection includes many examples of scrap quilts, crazy quilts, and quilts in traditional patterns executed with abstract coloring. Presented alongside modern works from the Gibbes Museum of Art, including paintings by Robert Rauschenberg and Sallie Frost Knerr, these quilts showcase the creativity and ingenuity of their makers. Enter the exhibit to see how they approached color, texture, and stitchwork with the same painterly expressiveness found in modern art.
“This collaboration with the Gibbes Museum is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the beauty of our two collections intertwined. We are so grateful for their willingness to partner with us for the loan,” said Virginia Theerman, Curator of Historic Textiles at The Charleston Museum. “Guests will have the opportunity to view the vibrancy of these quilts and see how their makers used design parameters to create their own abstract works, just like artists working in other mediums."
