“To God and Truth,” 2019. Bisa Butler (b. 1973). Printed and resist-dyed cottons, cotton velvet, rayon satin, and knotted string, pieced, appliquéd, and quilted. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Anyone can quilt.
Church groups. Fourth graders, living in a World War II internment camp. Political activists. Gay pornographers.
Their stories, and others—told with more than 50 quilts, sewn over 300 years—are on view at the Museum of Fine Arts’ “Fabric of a Nation,” a retrospective exhibition running through January.
The entryway gallery—an imposing rotunda, with three giant American flag quilts—introduces the exhibition’s purpose: to tell this country’s story, with thread.
But quilting creates far-reaching narratives, linked and memorable—and without borders. The story begins with the quilters, which do include Japanese fourth graders, and church groups, and pornographic artists. And the famous quilters of Gee’s Bend, strong-minded Mennonites, anonymous quilters throughout the American heartland, contemporary fabric artists with mind-bending visions, and political reformers making a stand.
“Pictorial quilt,” 1895–98. Harriet Powers (1837–1910). Cotton plain weave, pieced, appliquéd, embroidered, and quilted. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Quilting leaves behind their stories, through the stitching, design, dedication, the color and techniques, the patience and skill, the chess-like vision and planning.
It passes down the sense of comfort, the legacy of the era, and hints of the past. A contemporary quilter in Indiana, working with indigo, links back to West Africa, where men and women who knew how to cultivate the plant and create its stunning shade of blue were captured and enslaved.
If this were just America’s story, it would be humble, broadminded and inclusive. We all belong here, and parts of everyone’s story gets stitched here.
“Fabric of a Nation” can be too intense. Viewing the entire exhibition, thoroughly absorbing each riveting story while standing before these huge, calmly detailed works, feels a little like binge-watching a drama series.
It’s exhausting, because everything—the personalities, the stitching and techniques, the vision, the relentless devotion—demands curious scrutiny.
Like the story of Black America, from enslavement to the Civil War to MLK and BLM, told mostly in its own voice. Or the heartrendingly personal quilts: a father’s shirt, already worn out during the Depression, re-used as scrap to provide warmth. And the quilts capturing historic changes in the art-form, like the “Bible Quilt” of Harriet Powers (1837–1910), a county fair winner that helped usher in the era of quilt-making as fine art. Or the creations of the Mennonites, adapting the skills of their new Pennsylvania neighbors from Wales with strikingly modern-looking geometric simplicity.
“Amish Floating Barsquilt,” about 1940, unidentified artist, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Pieced wool plain weave top, wool plain weave back and binding; quilted. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Likewise the work of Irene Williams, from the renowned Gee’s Bend community, furthering the dreams of MLK in 1975 with the convoluted symmetries of her “Vote (Housetop variation).” Or Celestine Bacheller, a 19th century artist from Lynn, contributing one of several “crazy quilts”—amalgams of unrelated stories, in her case from her pre–Civil War life along Boston’s North Shore coast.
Contemporary quilts on view here show how fabric arts have blossomed, with examples like Bisa Butler’s colorful “To God and Truth,” and other works from Tomie Nagano, Rowland Ricketts, Newton’s Michael C. Thorpe, and the Cambridge collaborators Susan Hoffman and Molly Upton.
“Fabric of a Nation” runs through Jan. 17, 2022 at the Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. Timed entry required. Tickets ($34) include museum admission. mfa.org; 617 267-9300.
Keith Powers covers music and the arts for Gannett New England, Leonore Overture and Opera News. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.