Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
By: Hana Lily Haber
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) exhibition Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California presents nearly 80 individual artists and their stunning quilts which were collected by Oakland-based art collector and psychologist, Eli Leon, who donated close to 3,000 African American made quilts to the museum following his death in 2018 [1].
The museum text provides insight into the artists, predominantly African American women, many of whom were born in the South but made their way to the Bay Area during the 1940s-1970s seeking a new life away from Jim Crow laws. Through this migration, they brought with them their quilting traditions.
Untitled (Log Cabin, Barn Raising variation)
Anna Nicholson, 1940s; Vicksburg, Mississippi, or California Bay Area
Quilting is an act of devotion. Often made by family members, for family members, these time consuming labors of love function as warmth and comfort in cold months, as gifts to mark milestone life events like a baby or a death, and become a physical emblem of heritage and heirloom techniques. Eli Leon’s meticulous collecting was also an act of devotion: a devotion to preserving this ancestral craft that transcends survival skill and becomes a unique form of storytelling.
Quilting's capacity for storytelling manifests in an installation of Isiadore Whitehead’s home, approximated from the lone photograph of the artist’s room where quilts cover not only the bed, but most visible surfaces, including curtains, rugs, and seat cushions. The exhibition wall text reveals that Whitehead worked on her quilts during shifts as a school bus driver in Oakland, and she received fabric donations from teachers and parents of the students she drove. She embroidered the names of these people into the quilts that the scraps became. When observing this installation, the viewer can appreciate not only the skill, patience, and talent from Whitehead, but also the complexity of her life, the relationships she had in her community, and the love she both gave and received.
Isiadore Whitehead in her guest bedroom decorated with Double Wedding Ring quilt, drapes, mats, and chair (cats. 46–53), Oakland, California, 1984
Aside from the overwhelming volume of works in this collection – which increased BAMPFA’s holdings by 15% [2], Leon's donation also increased the visibility of quilting as an art form. Quilting typically falls into the category of “craft”, distinct from the esteemed “Fine Art” which primarily recognizes painting and sculpture as the highest forms of artistic expression.
The quilts in this exhibition can be viewed as both painting and sculpture. Each artist made careful decisions considering color, type of fabric, shape, and depth. There are abstract quilts with traditional patterns such as the Log Cabin (a pattern that is distinctly American, dating back to 1863 [3]), and there are figurative works, such as Alice Neal’s Untitled, 1918, which uses chainstitch embroidery as a form of chiaroscuro to build dimension that creates a portrait of her late mother. There is even a quilt composed entirely of neckties, the ties becoming a readymade fabric swatch, stitched together to form a rectangle we recognize as a quilt. Similar to sculpture, the quilts can be viewed as three dimensional objects. A section of the exhibition suspends the works from the ceiling into the middle of the space, so viewers can appreciate the intricate stitching on both the fronts and backs.
Mary Bright Commemorative Quilt (with Dresden Plate, Monkey Wrench, Wild Goose Chase, Fan, Basket of Flowers, Star of Lemoyne, Nine Patch blocks) Alice Neal, 1955-1956; Oakland, California
In addition to looking, guests are invited to feel the textures of the works at the brilliant “Touch Labels” stationed next to certain quilts where viewers are allowed to touch, squeeze, and feel small samples, accommodating the sometimes overwhelming urge to Touch The Art.
Touch Label Sample of Untitled (Puff quilt with tobacco sacks)
Annie Crawford, 1933–1940; Call, Texas
Estella Brown, Crawford’s niece, and her relatives were keepers of this quilt in Berkeley, California, until 1980.
While some quilts appear pristine, as if they were just taken from the sewing machine, there’s no question that many of these quilts were used for their practical purpose as blankets. Signs of wear including tattered edges, discoloration, and staining do not detract from the visual appeal, but enhance it. To see that these works were truly used and loved loudly adds layers of history to these otherwise silent objects. Additionally, there is a variety of exactitude presented in the exhibition: some quilts are linearly precise, square, and even, while others flow and warp as if the artist were more concerned with the organic flow of the sewing process than the accuracy of straight lines.
Untitled (Medallion)
Maker Once Known/Unidentified Artist
Probably 1930s; near McComb, Mississippi, or San Francisco, California Clara Belle Coleman and her descendants were the keepers of this quilt until 1987.
Across the exhibition, these quilts express the maker’s sense of color and pattern, technical aptitude, the wear of usage, and devotion not just to the act of making, but to the person who received the final result of their creativity. Eli Leon’s collection preserves the lived histories of all the families included and their migration stories from the South to the Bay Area, which expand into the larger history of our country.
Routed West, on view at BAMPFA through November 30th, not only uplifts the histories of African American quiltmakers, but allows the viewer to consider these functional objects within the realm of Fine Art, giving these treasured heirlooms the spotlight they’ve long deserved.
Citations
“BAMPFA Receives Historic Bequest of Nearly Three Thousand Quilts by African American Artists” Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive https://bampfa.org/news/bampfa-receives-historic-bequest-nearly-three-thousand-quilts- african-american-artists
“BAMPFA Receives Historic Bequest of Nearly Three Thousand Quilts by African American Artists” Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive https://bampfa.org/news/bampfa-receives-historic-bequest-nearly-three-thousand-quilts- african-american-artists
A History of Log Cabin Quilts: The Building of an American Classic Quilting Daily https://www.quiltingdaily.com/log-cabin-quilts-the-building-of-an-american-classic/
