Women and Fiber Art

While on travel, I was fortunate to visit the Frist Art Museum. Housed in a beautiful art-deco former post office, the Frist is currently featuring “Fabric Of A Nation: American Quilt Stories” on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 

In addition to the fact that fiber arts are witnessing a resurgence in the Art market, I had a personal reason to attend this exhibit: to see, in person, the fabulous work of Bisa Butler.

I have followed Bisa for several years on Instagram, and been astounded at the portrait quilts she renders: riveting, vibrant, representative of then and now, and eloquent in statement. As she herself says: “We are strong people. We are still struggling…I’m more interested in seeing “look what we can do”. “ To God and Truth, 2019" (from an 1899 photograph)

Another emotionally moving piece entitled "howmanymore" was created by Sylvia Hernandez in 2018. She was inspired to make this quilt by her students after they talked about the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

And a final evocative favorite was a Hoosier Suffrage quilt, representing the grassroots political movement of 1919-20 that fueled battles in statehouses across the country during the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted white women the right to vote.

And a final evocative favorite was a Hoosier Suffrage quilt, representing the grassroots political movement of 1919-20 that fueled battles in statehouses across the country during the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted white women the right to vote.