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The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art

1977; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 2; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3346022

1536-0334

Alanna Preussner, Patricia Cooper, Norma Bradley Buferd,

Fashion and Cultural Textiles

As Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Buferd note in the introduction to their book, The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art, the art of quiltmaking has burst upon the national consciousness since the special exhibit of quilts at the Whitney Museum in 1972. Since that time, a multitude of books on quiltmaking in the United States has been published-histories, how-to references, and collections of color photographs; museums have displayed widely varied collections of quilts; shops have done a booming business selling them. The number and variety of these sources is particularly heartening to feminists who want to attack the old saw that there have never been any great female artists. One look at a Ship's Compass or Grandmother's Flower Garden should be enough to dispel any lingering doubts about the incredible artistry of American women quiltmakers. However, all of this awakened attention to one of our country's forgotten arts does miss part of the point, as The Quilters demonstrates throughout. Quilts have been designed and made not only as glorious compositions of color and shape; they are also made to be used. There is, of course, a bittersweet irony in the prospect of using as a bedcover a work of art that took hundreds of hours to produce. Alice Walker, in her sensitive and beautiful story, Everyday Use, clearly understands that irony.1 the story, Wangero (sporting a new Swahili name and a hip sense of black culture) visits her mother and sister in their little home in the South. She flutters around, collecting various household implements to use as objets d'art; she inevitably fastens on two quilts made by her aunt and grandmother: In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War.2 Wangero is horrified when her mother tells her that the quilts are for Maggie, her sister; she is even more horrified to realize that Maggie will put the quilts to everyday use instead of hanging them on the wall. Her parting shot is that her mother and Maggie just don't understand their heritage. Obviously, they understand a great deal more than Wangero does about the kind of family history sewn into the beautiful quilts, which will, of course, wear out with use. The Quilters, Cooper and Buferd let women speak for themselves about the works of art that they have put to everyday use. The book is an extremely skillful combination of edited oral history interviews and conversations with women quilters in Texas and New Mexico; black-and-white photographs of the women, their homes, and the land; and wonderful color photographs of quilts. Both Buferd and Cooper have had a great deal of experience with quiltmaking, having learned the art as children; the entire book reflects their love and concern about a subject that has great emotional impact as well as historic signifi-