Public Parks, Private Gardens, and my Roses

Public Parks, Private Gardens at The Met exposits the development of gardening in France between the 1789 Revolution and World War I. Expansive green spaces were created to ensure the "pleasures of the king would be the pleasures of the people." With renewed interest in flowers and the common man, outdoors became places of leisure and inspiration. Is it any wonder artists moved their easels    outdoors, too?

Surprise! Wasn't this work at the Art Institute of Chicago last month? No; this is the final study Seurat made before his masterpiece. What a treat to see it again... with the same painted inner border.

Study for "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte"
by Georges Seurat, 1884.

According to the information card, the Monet family was in their back yard where Claude worked on the flower beds when Edouard Manet dropped by and started painting them - and their chickens. Before he finished setting up, Auguste Renoir came over, borrowed some of Edouard's supplies, and started his own study which is at the National Art Gallery. Claude is not in Auguste's painting because he'd quit gardening and started his own picture of Edouard. An early example of groups working on a common challenge just like quilters today.

The Monet Family in their Garden at Argenteuil
by Edouard Manet, 1874.

There were several Cassatt's including one of her earliest plein air paintings of her beloved sister, Lydia. I love the way her brushstrokes changed from Lydia's delicate face, to broader details of her clothing to the sweeping strokes of the garden.

Lydia Crocheting the Garden at Marly
by Mary Cassatt, 1880.

Fashion icon, Empress Eugenie, was painted as if she was outdoors. The detailing of her clothing is exquisite but the background looks more like a stage flat. Results like this pushed artists to move their work outdoors.

The Empress Eugenie
by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1854

Altogether this was an excellent showcase of the style variations of studio versus extemporaneous painting in daylight. In some ways it mirrors planned versus improvisational quilting. What do you think?

The day after we returned I became ill and still have little energy. I can't do much except think about the quilt on the design wall. Where should the stems lie? Do they need buds? How realistic do I want to be? {Since friends must point out the rose leaf structure my answer is, "Not very."}

Adding leaves to the rose stems
on Chinese Coins VIII: Strewing Roses

Then I cut some leaves. And pondered. And moved a few. And added more leaves.

Moving leaves on the rose stems
on Chinese Coins VIII: Strewing Roses

It still needs some tweaking. Once I turn the edges everything will be smaller so more leaves may be in order. We'll see.

The quilt looks amazingly different as the details are filled in.

From the first layout of Coin sheets...

Random light blue Coins 
form a background 

To the addition of pieced roses...

Quilt with Chinese Coins
background and pieced roses

To the thought of stems.

Adding stems on the roses
of the Chinese Coin quilt

Who'd a thought?

Enjoy the day, Ann

The Met: History Refused to Die

How could I not call in at The Met? It's overwhelmingly large so my best plan is to choose only two exhibits to view per day. This visit included History Refused to Die and Public Parks, Private Gardens.

The former is a collection of paintings, sculpture, and quilts by contemporary African American artists from the southeastern US. Partly due to depressed economic conditions, they all feature discarded/recycled/found objects in their work. They often address slavery and post-Reconstruction oppression but also use African aesthetics and patterning to convey a sophisticated synchronicity. When we actually listen to other people's points of view we broaden our own understanding.

Lucy T Pettway's map quilt came first - the only Gee's Bend quilt that seems to be intentionally pictorial. She placed the old Pettway mansion at the top with four slave cabins below. Green fields fill the left while the blue Alabama River flows between red dirt banks on the right. This improvisational map should inspire us all. I think she pieced herself into the first slave house. Do you see a woman with lots of black hair in orange dress... or is it just my imagination?

Housetop and Bricklayer with Bars
quilt by Lucy T Pettway, 1955.

Loretta Pettway made a series of three quilts of the same gray, blue, and olive recycled clothing in the purest form of the Housetop pattern, although the original inspiration may have been center medallion quilts of early 19th century. The movement of the dark brown and bright blue round is quite intriguing. I keep thinking it's a single round. Nope, it's a spiral. Nope. Very clever.

Housetop quilt by Loretta Pettway, 1963. 

William Arnett began collecting Gee's Bend quilts after seeing this one draped on a woodpile. You've seen it on the cover of his Gee's Bend quilt book and I got to see it close up for quite a while. The orange/yellow/brown fabrics are corduroy while the outer border is used denim, probably from work clothes.

Strip Medallion quilt
by Annie Mae Young, 1976.

Pants backs were  preferable in quilts because the fronts were usually worn out from kneeling while farming. Old quilts were occasionally reused as quilt filling. Fortunately this one did not become the batting for a newer model although there are several worn spots that have been preserved with tulle.

Blocks and Strips with work-clothes quilt
by Lucy Mingo, 1959.

Somehow this reminds me of a Chinese Coins quilt. The colors simply vibrate with excitement.

Medallion quilt by Loretta Pettway, 1960. 

Joe Minter evokes the forced labor African Americans from cotton before the Civil War to chain gangs in the 20th century, titling it Four Hundred Years of Free Labor. Consider how much easier it is to enrich yourself when you don't pay your workers... or don't pay them a living wage. Are we experiencing similar situations today?

Four Hundred Years of Free Labor
by Joe Minter, 1995.

On the way out I spotted this exquisite work by Malian-born Abdoulaye Konate who uses textiles as his primary medium. He sewed long strips and arranged them as a graceful falls in tribute to the indigo dye central to West African aesthetics.

Bleu no.1 by Abdoulaye Konate, 2014.

Enjoy the day, Ann