Quilts
In 1971, the Whitney Museum’s held an exhibition titled Abstract Design in American Quilts. This was the first time that a major American art museum presented quilts as a unique visual art form. It was an incredibly popular exhibition that eventually toured the country, sparking a nationwide revival of interest in quilting throughout the 1970s.
A quilt is differentiated from other blankets because of its several layers and the stitching that holds them together. Usually, a quilt will have three layers: a decorative top layer, a plainer back layer, and an unseen layer sandwiched between the two that provides warmth and weight. Most quilts have pieced or patchwork tops, where multiple woven fabrics are cut and sewn together to create patterns. All of the layers are sewn together in the process known as quilting. The quilting stitches that hold these layers in place can be a design element in their own right. While “quilt” is sometimes used to refer to any type of bed-covering, the term does not technically apply to single-layer woven blankets, knitted or crocheted bedspreads, or comforters/duvets.
Various social movements and trends of the 1970s found quilts appealing for different reasons. For those craving nostalgia and history as the nation’s bicentennial approached, quilts represented tradition and a connection to the past. Quilts fit neatly with the aesthetic and philosophy of the 1970s Arts and Crafts Revival, while the “back to the land” movement appreciated the humble, economical, and pastoral associations of traditional quilts. Those who followed the mantra of “reduce, re-use, recycle” found that quilting allowed them to re-use fabric scraps in an attractive and functional way. For feminists, appreciating quilts was a way of honoring an under-valued, primarily feminine art form. African American women played a particularly important role in the quilting revival, using traditional techniques to emphasize their role in American history and innovating with modern approaches to create contemporary works of art, which the art world finally recognized as as worthy of study and celebration as anything made with paint on canvas (see, for instance, the work of Rosie Lee Tompkins). In other words, the 1970s revival of quilting offered something for everyone.
Expo ‘74 embraced the quilt trend in several ways. Most notably, the Folk Life festival featured an outdoor “quilting bee” in which quilters from Washington, Idaho, and Oregon demonstrated their skills. These on-site quilters created six different quilts for Expo, which are now in the archives of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. You can click on the images for more information about these quilts.
