The Quilts of Gee's Bend
My mom is in town visiting and yesterday afternoon, she and I went to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Bonus: Tuesday is their free day! So if you have a Tuesday free, I recommend going.
Anyway, we saw a few exhibits, but the best by far was the Quilts of Gee's Bend. Gee's Bend is in Alabama, it's part of the Black Belt and thus had lots of cotton farming, lots of slaves, and then subsequently lots of very poor sharecroppers. The women did a lot of quilting with whatever scraps they could find, to keep their families warm and also eventually to generate some income (latter half of the 20th century). I am not really doing the best job in my synopsis, you really have to go see the exhibit, it is wonderful, and there is a cool video showing at the back of the exhibit. There are photos too, and of course lots of quilts. The part that stuck with me the most was in the video, when one of the older women said that back then (basically the 1980's and earlier, but she was talking about when she was a kid in the 30's and 40's) nobody had anything, but they were always happy. Now that people have everything, no one's happy.
Here is a website about the quilts and the area, and here is info on the de Young museum. I don't have any photos because they said No Photos in the Exhibit and, amazingly, I opted to follow the rules. Must have been my mom's influence.
Anyway, we saw a few exhibits, but the best by far was the Quilts of Gee's Bend. Gee's Bend is in Alabama, it's part of the Black Belt and thus had lots of cotton farming, lots of slaves, and then subsequently lots of very poor sharecroppers. The women did a lot of quilting with whatever scraps they could find, to keep their families warm and also eventually to generate some income (latter half of the 20th century). I am not really doing the best job in my synopsis, you really have to go see the exhibit, it is wonderful, and there is a cool video showing at the back of the exhibit. There are photos too, and of course lots of quilts. The part that stuck with me the most was in the video, when one of the older women said that back then (basically the 1980's and earlier, but she was talking about when she was a kid in the 30's and 40's) nobody had anything, but they were always happy. Now that people have everything, no one's happy.
Here is a website about the quilts and the area, and here is info on the de Young museum. I don't have any photos because they said No Photos in the Exhibit and, amazingly, I opted to follow the rules. Must have been my mom's influence.
One more thing: the exhibit is only in San Francisco until Dec. 31.
Labels: enjoy the blog, family, nonsense
posted by Courtenay at 10/04/2006
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