The New American Quilt

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Collection SummaryWhile quilting is often thought of as a time-honored craft, the works featured in The New American Quilt traveling exhibition were anything but traditional. Originally curated by the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York, this selection of 38 quilts by 25 different artists found their way to the Missoula Art Museum in November 1976. From embroidered portraits and patchwork landscapes to polyester breakfast foods and a silkscreened photo of Hank Williams, the quilters widely eschewed function in favor of form and individual expression. Some quilts even bordered on three-dimensional soft sculpture, with several requiring specially constructed platforms and painstaking installation instructions in order to appropriately display them. A brief textual history of the quilt as a medium, written by Jonathan Holstein, accompanied the exhibition, providing visitors with both context and contrast for the works they were seeing in comparison with traditional quilts. However, despite all the contemporary liberties taken by the artists, each piece possessed the three fundamental qualities that define every good quilt: a top, a back, and the filler in between. Contributing InstitutionMissoula Art MuseumRelated Main CollectionMissoula Art Museum Exhibition Collection

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The New American Quilt

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