Patterns in Abstraction: Black Quilts from the High’s Collection

Lucy T. Pettway (American, 1921–2004), Birds in the Air, 1981, cotton and cotton-polyester blend, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2017.70.

Marquetta Johnson (American, born 1955), Nine Patch, 2016–2018, hand-dyed and hand-painted cotton fabric, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of the artist, 2022.204.

Over the past six years, the High has more than quintupled its holdings of quilts made by Black women. This collection-based exhibition will be the first to bring a number of these recent acquisitions together to answer a larger question: “How can quilts made by African American women change how we view the history of abstraction?”

Patterns in Abstraction will include about a dozen works by well-known Gee’s Bend quilters such as Mary Lee Bendolph, Louisiana Bendolph, and Lucy T. Pettway, along with works by Atlanta-based quilter Marquetta Johnson and early twentieth-century examples by artists once known. The quilts on view are mostly variations on Birds in the Air and Housetop themes, two centuries-old quilt patterns that are geometric distillations of natural phenomenon and humanmade environments, while others have deeper meanings as memorials to family members.

Presented as both objects made for use and with the artistic intent to represent people, places, and things abstractly, these quilts offer a window into how the production of nonacademic artists can transform our understanding of artistic innovation in American art. A corresponding publication through LINK, the museum’s platform for online engagement, will offer multimedia and interactive content related to the High’s expanded and growing collection of Black quilts.