The latest "Why Quilts Matter" guest blog is now posted, and the topic is Quilts and Art History. It's a topic that's near and dear, because I first started learning about quilts when I was enrolled in art school. However, art history curriculum didn't include quilts.
To accompany the blog, I chose this wonderful Diamonds quilt from the 1890s, one of my personal favorites. This stained glass window made of silk is an iconic, memorable image- and isn't art history built around iconic, memorable images?
Art history should include quilts- quilts like this! It's a masterpiece. When thinking of Victorian quilts and quilt history, it comes easily to mind. It's a remarkably good example of the Victorian obsession with embellishment and detail. And even though it is far more structured than most quilts of the period, it is no less obsessive. A rare, but representative example.
How do we even begin to address the inclusion of quilts in art history? To read my take on the subject, click here.
Great article! Thanks for talking about this. The exclusion of quilts in the art world has always baffled me.
ReplyDeleteHow to define art? I know it when I see it
ReplyDeleteand this is it