Bending the Definitions: art versus craft
Can a quilt be considered art? The contention of “art versus craft” is hotly debated as creators seek to migrate from the unwanted label of artisan to that of artist. Unfortunately, these classifications are often handed down from higher authorities such as art critics and museums with little input from the people whose work is being categorized.
So what do you think, makers? Are quilts art or they craft?
I have put together a booklet exploring the definitions of art and craft in the context of quilts, specifically considering the exhibition of the Gee's Bend quilts in 2002. This is an important and relevant debate for us as quilters and makers, so I encourage you to sit down with a cup of tea and a biscuit to peruse and join the discussion. Yvonne of Quilting Jet Girl is also opening up her blog as a platform for discussion with a fascinating interview with her father-in-law about art vs. hobby in the artistic community.
Sit down. Join in. Even if it is not right now, return when you have time, and let us know your thoughts. Can a quilt be considered art?
Can a quilt be considered art?
Can a quilt be considered art? The contention of “art versus craft” is hotly debated as creators seek to migrate from the unwanted label of artisan to that of artist. Unfortunately, these classifications are often handed down from higher authorities such as art critics and museums with little input from the people whose work is being categorized. Art museums have long defined the canon of high art, and breaking into the inner circle of the permanent collection is arduous and at times near impossible. Although quilts are generally considered folk art, the Gee’s Bend Quilt Exhibition in 2002 pushed boundaries and broke ground in the high art scene through strategic staging and language. Some critics vehemently disagreed with the overturning of such hierarchies and the context in which the quilts were placed. However, many strongly supported the statement and appreciation for quilts as art has grown markedly from this monumental collection.
What are the definitions?
Creators across many mediums contest the handed-down distinctions between “art” and “craft,” so where do they come from? In fact, art museums hold the coveted position of determining these boundaries. Peter Marizio, director of the museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the first venue of the Gee’s Bend quilts, posits that art museums must at once follow art trends but also set them, putting them in a unique spot, developing and obeying the high art canon in a constant cycle.[1] Modernist America made a shift around the time of Duchamp and Warhol to include certain objects into museums and the high art canon such as the everyday items of “ready-mades” and the popular art of comics and prints. However as Jane Livingston, an influential curator of African-American art, points out, “vernacular” and “folk art” are still outside of the high art category.[2] The question remains: what are the definitions of these categories?
Art versus craft
Award-winning author and educational consultant on arts for children, Mary Anne Kohl, offers insight. She sees several strong distinctions between arts and crafts, specifically in the context of children’s projects.[3] First, art is open-ended. The results are unknown and based on self-expression rather than directions. Crafts, on the other hand, have specific targeted results. They focus on copying and imitating, and the final product is often identical to other children’s. Second, process is valued more than finished product in art. The thought behind an artwork is important, such as Piero Manzoni’s Merde d’Artiste and Joseph Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs. Crafts, conversely, value an end goal—a papier-mâché horse, a cotton ball snowman. With these differences in mind, it is easy to see why quilts might be placed in the craft category, especially following the advent of mass-produced patterns and fabric lines. A quilt that follows a pattern has a certain end-goal without much space for self-expression. The results are similar to those of other quilters who follow the pattern. It’s important to remember, though, that not all quilts are made in this fashion, and through the efforts of William Arnett, the preconceived notion of quilts as craft was turned on its head.
Mixed reviews: retrograde or ebullient
An art collector and promoter, William Arnett pioneered the cause of the Gee’s Bend quiltmakers and their art, but what became a national story began as a chance encounter with a photograph. Arnett stumbled upon a picture of several Gee’s Bend quilts in Roland Freeman’s 1996 book A Communion of the Spirits: African American Quilters, Preservers, and their Stories.[4] Already intrigued by the culture and arts of the Deep South and struck by the beautiful geometries and colors, he decided to track down the quilts. What he found was a generations old quilting tradition of unique and striking style. He immediately purchased a selection of the quilts from the surprised but pleased quilters and brought them back north for documenting. Together with his son, Arnett presented the idea of an exhibition to curators John Beardsley and Jane Livingston, who had pioneered the African-American art exhibit Black Folk Art in America 1930-1980.4 Partnered with the financial backing of Jane Fonda, exhibition planning began. The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston agreed to host the exhibit first with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York signing on to be the second venue, and in September of 2002, it opened to the Texan public. When the show reached New York, it truly hit its stride, flourishing and exploding with raving reviews. A prominent art critic of the New York Times, Michael Kimmelman called it "the most ebullient exhibition of the New York art season." 4 Within days many museums across the country wanted to host the exhibit, and nine more venues were secured—a success by any curator’s standards. With such wide acclaim, the exhibition sent ripples throughout the art world, questioning the hitherto held exclusion of quilts from high art.
Sophisticated design & abstract canvases
Although previously considered folk art, the strategically staged quilts of the Gee’s Bend exhibition strove to push back against such a classification. The Whitney, specifically, employed three approaches to challenge such assumptions. First, the exhibition emphasized the sophisticated design of the quilts. Hung with few contextual notes or stories, the quilts were widely spaced on the walls and hung as canvases, allowing the composition and design of each quilt to be viewed in the same way as an abstract painting. Michael J Prokopow, a reviewer of the exhibition, stated, "in many ways, the explanatory texts were tangential, if not at times intrusive."[5] Put in the context of other high art, “their abstract geometries and bold syncopated colors [were]…likened to paintings by Matisse and Klee.”[6] NPR compared the improvisation to that of the powerful and inventive 20th-century abstract painters,[7] and curator Livingston concurred in the exhibition catalogue, commenting that the stripes and geometries clearly paralleled the famous minimalists Noland and Stella among others.[8] Staged as high art, the viewer was encouraged to consider the quilts to reside in such a class.
Context of the quilts
The second tactic was to focus on the sociocultural history of the quilts. Just as Russian constructivism is a product of the surrounding political climate, the quilts find meaning in their socioeconomic and isolated geographic environment. This seems to counter to the first approach and was emphasized more in the museums other than the Whitney. Elsewhere videos, photographs, and writings could be found in and around the gallery. This backfired when the curator of the International Quilt Study Center Carol Ducey pointed out that poverty was probably the “driving force behind the so-called free-spirited creativity” rather than the “genius” espoused by the Houston museum director.[9] Yet the conflicted success of the second method did not eliminate the effectiveness of the other two.
Quiltmakers as artists
The final push centered on presenting the individual quiltmakers as artists with unique contributions and identities. To stand as artists, the quilters needed to be seen as individuals not as a collective. The Arnetts used phrases such as "deep aesthetic impulse" and "statements of identity and individuality" to describe the quiltmakers and their quilts.9 The quilters experienced this conversion as well, moving away from describing their quilting as something to keep their families warm to a creative outlet. The Arnetts espoused that everything else in a domestic life was limited in terms of self-expression. Quilting, on the other hand, offered an opportunity for the women to have full creative license: downsizing, magnifying, and rearranging as they pleased. The exhibit sought to convince the audience that the quilts were thoroughly designed objects that began conceptually and employed improvisational techniques and spontaneity. The exhibition as a whole was met with great praise and certainly opened the discussion for quilts to be recognized in art museums.
Critics speak up
However, there were many who disagreed with and critiqued such an overturning of the high art hierarchy. The former Whitney curator Thelma Golden saw the new designation of quilters as artists to be "the most culturally repugnant, retrograde moment" she had experienced in, perhaps, her entire life.[10] Reviewer Prokopow disputed the show for other reasons. He felt displaying the quilts as high art to be a "dissembling act" because labeling them so was "neither permanent nor completely honest."[11] Prokopow predicted, and somewhat rightly so, that quilts would not gain permanent presence on the walls of the modern art museums. Instead they would be relegated once again to the folk art scene after the hype had died down. He also felt the Whitney quilt exhibition wrongfully separated the quilts from their true tradition and sociocultural context. Prokopow saw the isolation of the quilts in the gallery as divorcing them from their authentic value and environment. These and other critics felt this edit of the high art hierarchy was neither beneficial nor a step toward better appreciation of the arts in varying cultures.
Art
Returning to the examination of “art versus craft” with this new perspective on quilts, it can be understood how quilts might be considered art. The quilts of Gee’s Bend are open-ended projects. The finished product is not pre-determined except in the mind of the quiltmaker. Spontaneity and improvisation are key with space for self-expression. Process, for the Gee’s Bend quilters, is emphasized, allowing the quilt to morph with materials at hand and the artists’ whims. With these examples in mind, it is clear that the Gee’s Bend style of quilting should be given the title of art rather than craft.
Into the spotlight
Whether or not this adjustment to the high art canon is accepted widely by the art world or is merely a passing phase is yet to be seen. Although the growing modern quilt movement has gained visibility in the art world, it still remains primarily housed in folk art museums. Arnett’s exhibition of the Gee’s Bend Quilts made great strides toward breaking quilts into high art museums and new classifications but unfortunately, quilts remain on the fringe of these institutions waiting for another push into the spotlight.
[1] Peter Marizio, “Introduction: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend,” in Gee’s Bend: The Women and Their Quilts,” ed. John Beardsley (Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2002), 9.
[2] Jane Livingston, “Reflections on the Art of Gee’s Bend,” in Gee’s Bend: The Women and Their Quilts,” ed. John Beardsley (Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2002), 52.
[3] Mary Anne Kohl, “Art vs. Crafts,” Barnes and Noble, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/MaryAnn-Kohl-Arts-Crafts/379002813/.
[4] Sally Anne Duncan, “From Cloth to Canvas: Reinventing Gee’s Bend Quilts in the Name of Art,” Museum Anthropology 28, no. 1 (March 2005): 19-22.
[5] Michael J Prokopow, “Material Truths: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend at the Whitney Museum of Art: An Exhibition Review,” Winterthur Portfolio 38, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 60.
[6] Sally Anne Duncan, “From Cloth to Canvas: Reinventing Gee’s Bend Quilts in the Name of Art,” Museum Anthropology 28, no. 1 (March 2005): 24.
[7] Neal Conan, “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend: A Showcase of Distinctive Work by African-American Artists,” NPR, last modified February 4, 2003, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=970364.
[8] Jane Livingston, “Reflections on the Art of Gee’s Bend,” in Gee’s Bend: The Women and Their Quilts,” ed. John Beardsley (Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2002), 52.
[9] Sally Anne Duncan, “From Cloth to Canvas: Reinventing Gee’s Bend Quilts in the Name of Art,” Museum Anthropology 28, no. 1 (March 2005): 27-28.
[10] Sally Anne Duncan, “From Cloth to Canvas: Reinventing Gee’s Bend Quilts in the Name of Art,” Museum Anthropology 28, no. 1 (March 2005): 27.
[11] Michael J Prokopow, “Material Truths: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend at the Whitney Museum of Art: An Exhibition Review,” Winterthur Portfolio 38, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 63.