For generations, the women of Gee’s Bend have been creating patchwork quilts by piecing together scraps of fabric and clothing in abstract designs that had never before been expressed on quilts. Their patterns and piecing styles were passed down over generations, surviving slavery and Jim Crow. Enlivened by a visual imagination that extends the expressive boundaries of the quilt genre, these astounding creations have expanded the realm of Black visual culture and opened a door to new understandings of American art and history.
In 2002, the seminal exhibition The Quilts of Gee’s Bend debuted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, celebrating the artistic legacy of four generations of Gee’s Bend quiltmakers. Hailed by the New York Times during its display at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced,” the quilts were displayed at 11 other museums nationwide. Since this first exhibition, Gee’s Bend quilts have been exhibited in museums worldwide, including, most recently, at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
