excerpt from the exhibition essay:

The thirty-seven quilts in this exhibition are the work of fifteen African-American quilt-makers from Alabama.  Most of the quilts shown here were made in the 1980s and 1990s, although some are from earlier decades of the 20^th century. Like the widely celebrated Gees Bend Quilts, also from rural Alabama, which have risen to prominence in recent years, these selections from the collection of Dr. Robert Cargo highlight the intuitive artistry of ordinary quilters who for generations have produced extraordinary works with distinctive links to a deep and rich African aesthetic and heritage. 

Among the creators of these quilts are Nora Ezell, recipient of the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts; Mary Lucas, mother of acclaimed Southern outsider artist Charlie Lucas;  Jeff Martin and Dennis Jones, unusual examples of African-American men who ventured into territory typically dominated by women; and many other notable quilters.  Quilts by these same makers have been published in many books and shown in numerous exhibitions of African-American quilts across the United States.  Many are represented in the permanent collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art in Alabama, as well as the International Quilt Study Center in Nebraska and the American Museum of Folk Art in New York.   

 Of special interest in this particular exhibition collection is the group of eleven quilts by Yvonne Wells, a contemporary African-American, self-taught quilt artist with an international reputation.    Mrs. Wells made her first quilt in 1979.   In a brief assessment of Mrs. Wells' work, Dr. Cynthia Elyce Rubin writes: "With no formal training, only absolute determination, she embarked on a personal journey of discovery. Within about four years, her unique style took shape. Reflecting her animated and lively personality, intense hues combine with unusual color combinations to enliven a rich design vocabulary."[1] 

 In the eleven quilts by Mrs. Wells, we sense the development of her artistic style and the unfolding of her imagination and self-confidence.  In her early quilts, a small number of which are included here, Mrs. Wells created quilts based on traditional patchwork patterns. Yet even these, like her bold Log Cabin and Drunkard’s Path variations, were already moving toward experimentation that resulted in striking visual designs.  From this beginning, she moved rapidly in the direction of appliquéd picture quilts.  Initially, the characters in these quilts were small stick figures of approximately 8 to 10 inches tall. As her confidence gradually grew, the figures became larger so that today a single figure may occupy the entire quilt. 

 Mrs. Wells’ full-sized narrative quilts are most often based on Biblical texts, as in Noah and the Ark, and socio-political themes, many of which focus on the civil rights struggle of her people, as in Yesterday:  Civil Rights in the South.  As a quilter, Mrs. Wells is best seen as working in the tradition of both Harriet Powers[2] -- the well-known, slave-born, African-American maker of the narrative “Bible Quilt” --  and Ruth Clement Bond[3] – the African-American educator and civic leader who designed the “T.V.A.” series of quilts in the 1930’s.

 These quiltmakers – domestics, farm workers, housewives, and teachers, -- are modern day representatives of a wide community of African-American women (and rarely men) of the rural South  who have created these quilts for generations.   While some of the makers of these quilts are still living, most are now no longer able to quilt due to the infirmities of old age.  Today, however, their own daughters and granddaughters have moved away or are working.  Most have neither the time nor the inclination to quilt like their mothers and grandmothers before them.