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The Lehman Art Gallery, at Lehman Col-lege in the Bronx, New York, is currently exhibiting fourteen contemporary quilts and eight limited-edition etchings made

by the Gee’s Bend quilters. An African-American community located southwest of Selma, Alabama, the group has a tradition of quilt making dating back to the 19th -ors, the abandoning of traditional grid design and the recycling of materials speak to the individuality

become highly prized by collectors and museums, are recognizable by “compositions [that] vary widely from minimalist constructions to intricately pieced geometries—often with unpredictable sequences of patterns, bold colors...their inventive improvisa-

EXHIBIT

THE GEE’S BEND TRADITIONtions suggest jazz ri�s and bring to mind the innovations of 20th cen-tury modernism,” according to cura-tor and exhibition organizer Susan Hoeltzel.

Since their rise to prominence in the 1920s, the quilters of Gee’s Bend (known as Boykin since 1949) have gone from making items of necessity to creating timeless works of art. As is the tradition with all quilt making, the women of Gee’s Bend assembled their works from discarded pieces of cloth, and their works were essential objects to the inhabitants of the unheated “Roos-evelt houses” built for them in the 1930s.

On view at The Lehman Gallery, Bronx, New York, lehman.edu/gallery

see The exhibit is on view through April 24.

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Typically comprised of a variety of re-cycled fabrics that carry memories as-sociated with the previous owner and with personal connections to friends and family, these magnificent quilts feature “used clothing [as]… an aes-thetic choice.” Working both as indi-viduals and in groups, the women of Gee’s Bend established a distinctive style, sometimes working from sketch-es, other times improvisationally. To-day the quilters’ awareness of the role their pieces hold in the contemporary art world means they are conceived as works meant to displayed, like paint-ings, on the wall.

-an exhibition are contemporary works; for example, Loretta Ben-nett’s Wrapped in Denim of 2014 is an intricate quilt of vibrant colors at the center which mute into the blues

.tuo etaidar yeht sa mined dedaf fo

of the free form that typifies the Gee’s

and underlying layers work as patches

across the surface of this vibrant quilt. Bennett also demonstrates her love of color and her success in adapting quilt making into etching with her aquatint Blues, of 2007. Her ability to move the viewer’s eye in and out of the composition is sophisticated and indicates an innate understanding of color theory.

Louisiana Bendolph’s History, of 2007, illustrates another example of a quilter’s transition from one media to

blue and a strategic black stripe in her aquatint are not the work of a simple seamstress but the result of a knowing and intrinsically savvy artist.

Lastly, the complex quilt by Tinnie Dell Pettway titled Gee’s Bend Tradi-tion, of 2005, harkens to a work she almost certainly has never seen, Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie,

movement and intensity of the design are not merely eye catching but also the output of a seriously devised plan successfully carried out.

Louisiana BendolphHistory, 2007

Softground aquatint27 3/4 x 34 1/2 inches

Edition # 17/50Courtesy of Paulson Bott Press

Loretta BennettBlues, 2007

Softground spitbite aquatint etching42 3/4 x 31 inches

Edition # 23/50Courtesy of Paulson Bott Press

Loretta BennettWrapped in Denim, 2014

Quilted fabric84 X 84 inches

Courtesy of Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle

3Artwork: Tinnie Dell Pettway, Gee’s Bend Tradition, 2009Quilted fabric, 79 x 82 inches, Courtesy of That’s Sew Gee’s Bend

TABLE OF CONTENTS6 THE GEE’S BEND TRADITION An exhibit of contemporary quilts

10 DAVID BOHNETT The perfect philanthropist

16 HELEN MOLESWORTH A self-described “feminist curator”

22 ARTISTS DRINKING BEER A conversation with Iva

Gueorguieva and Liat Yossifor

32 GORDON PARKS Segregation Story photo essay

42 TR ANSFORMATIVE GIFTS Hits and misses in museum donations

60 MY FIR ST TIME With Wall Street Journal Arts Editor

Eric Gibson

4 A word from the editor

38 The Schnitzer Collection

48 Bruce Nauman

50 Nathalie du Pasquier

54 Madame Cézanne

62 Perspective

63 Contributors