Black Quilts from the High Museum

Left to right: Member of Drake family, Thomaston, Upson County, Georgia, maker, Bible Scenes Quilt, ca. 1900, cotton, 76 1/2 × 71 inches, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase with funds from the Decorative Arts Acquisition Endowment, 1995.82. Faith Ringgold (American, 1930–2024), Church Picnic Story Quilt, 1988, tie-dyed, printed fabrics and acrylic on cotton canvas, 74 1/2 × 75 1/2 inches, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Don and Jill Childress through the 20th-Century Art Acquisition Fund, 1988.28. © 1988 Faith Ringgold/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Carolyn W. White (American, born 1950), Awestruck before an Unforgettable Nubian Queen, or From Gee’s Bend to Royalty (detail), 2021, cotton, rayon, polyester, ink, fabric markers, acrylic, yarn, plastic beads, cowrie shells, and Swarovski crystals, 60 × 72 inches, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase with funds from the Friends of Folk Art, 2022.48. © Carolyn W. White.

Over the past five years, the High has more than quadrupled the number of quilts made by African American women in its collection, which today include one of Jessie Telfair’s iconic Freedom quilts, fifteen masterpieces from the artists of Gee’s Bend, and stunning pieces by members of Atlanta’s more than twenty-year-old quilt guild, the Brown Sugar Stitchers Quilt Guild. This suite of digital resources is published in conjunction with the exhibition Patterns in Abstraction: Black Quilts from the High’s Collection, which features seventeen quilts—all acquired since 2005—and addresses the question, “How can quilts made by Black women change the way we tell the history of abstract art?” This LINK site includes resources related to the exhibition and the convening that was held in preparation for it, as well as a wide variety of written, video, and interactive content that deepens engagement with the museum’s continually growing collection of Black quilts.