June Issue 2001
150 Years Of North Carolina Quilts: Selections From The Pattie Royster James Collection at Green Hill Center for NC Art
The Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art, Greensboro, NC presents 150 Years of North Carolina Quilts: Selections from the Pattie Royster James Collection through Aug. 24. Organized by the Gallery of Art & Design at NC State University in Raleigh, NC, the exhibition celebrates the ingenuity, individuality and beauty of these quilts made for daily use.
The 48 quilts in the exhibition were selected from a total of 102 given to NC State University over the past year by Dr. A. Everette James, Jr. and Dr. Nancy Farmer in memory of his mother, Pattie Royster James. A quilter herself, James started her son collecting when she suggested a quilt exhibition for St. James Place, the Primitive Baptist church once attended by her mother, aunt and uncle. Dr. James acquired the church when services were discontinued in the 1980s, restored it, and opened it as a museum for North Carolina pottery, quilts and folk art. To this collection he brought the same gusto and perseverance with which he pursued his other collecting passions: North Carolina pottery, 19th and early 20th century American furniture and art, particularly Southern women painters, folk art and outsider art.
James started to collect by attending local county fairs. Inspired by the quilts he found, he acquired both more quilts and growing expertise. His plan was to collect quilts from all 100 North Carolina counties - a goal he will surely reach given his love for the textiles and the enthusiasm he has for the search. An early partner in his travels was his large yellow Labrador retriever, Mr. Grady. A book of humorous stories, Tales from the Dismal Swamp, based on his conversations with Grady was published last fall.
To curate the show for the Gallery of Art & Design at NC State University, the gallery called upon Robert Bryan, an NC State graduate with dual degrees from the College of Design and the College of Textiles. He was an intern at the gallery for four semesters, and during that time he researched and curated an exhibition of Coptic textiles from The permanent collection. Bryan presently serves as a manufacturer's liaison for Oshkosh B'Gosh.
Gifted with an unwavering sense of good design, a remarkable visual memory and an extensive knowledge of fabrics and techniques, Bryan brought a fresh eye to selecting the quilts. In his catalogue essay, "The Divine Design of the Everyday" he explains the observations that guided his selections, 'Within the larger body of this wonderful collection were quilts that showed bravura in craft, elements of elegance in the raw material selections, or intriguing patterns. The quilts that were truly outstanding, however, also demonstrated improvisation within the context of established patterns and traditional use."
The quilts range in age from a "whole cloth" quilt made in 1820-1830 to a Drunkard's Path quilt made around 1970. In the former, a central copperplate printed floral fabric panel is flanked by two side panels cut from a complementary geometrically patterned fabric. It is bound in a third fabric and quilted in a large zigzag pattern. The colors are burnished oranges, browns, creams and teal. Very simple in construction, seemingly made for use and not show, this quilt clearly wasn't used and survives in excellent condition. The Drunkards Path quilt fared less well in its wear, but is a strikingly graphic combination of plain orange and navy fabrics. The pattern gets its name from the way its square pieces are dissected by circles. The blocks are rotated to create a decidedly staggering effect.
In between, quilts with names like Rob Peter to Pay Paul, Sprocket (or Wheel of Fortune), Hill and Hollow, Flying Geese, Kansas Dugout, Winding Blades and Rail Fence display the personal adaptations of their makers. Stars are interpreted as Blazing Star, Star Variation, Lone Star and Eight Point Star and there are Double and Quadruple Irish Chain quilts. Variations of the ever favorite Crazy Quilt include fragments of a Friendship Quilt top apparently made by women with time to embroider and embellish their pieces and one attributed to an African American maker that is made with materials at hand. It is no less elegant in color tonalities and overall abstract cohesiveness.
Robert Bryan captures the essence of this striking exhibition with the words concluding his catalogue essay: "This is the power of quilts. They capture us with their everydayness and their magic."
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