Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/260419
T o a fine ceramist, a pot is never just a vessel. And for a quilter, that expanse of fabric is never merely a blanket. From its pattern and color to the seemingly random stuff from which it is created, a quilt com- bines formal traditions, individual expression, and—in its disparate pieces—a singular, often highly personal history. Arguably, no other folk practice is so central to the ongoing conversation that seeks to articulate the relationship between craft and fine art. With "From Heart to Hand: African American Quilts from the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts," the DePaul Art Museum offers the committed and the simply curious an outstanding oppor- tunity to ponder this uniquely agreeable pairing of form and function. Drawn from the extensive collection of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, the exhibition ranges from the 1940s to the present and includes traditional works in star and box patterns, the wildly celebrated abstrac- tions spun by the women of Gee's Bend, and figurative pieces that honor such figures as Jackie Robinson and Elvis Presley. Often dizzying in com- position, these panels of cotton, polyester, and wool are as telling as the brushstrokes of a painter. And as DePaul Art Museum director Louise Lincoln observes, "This show allows us to look at issues around gender and the valuation of functional versus nonfunctional art, but it also reminds us that not that long ago, quilt making was not just a creative activity, but highly practical, and even a livelihood." April 10 through June 15, DePaul Art Museum, 935 W. Fullerton Ave., 773-325-7506; depaul.edu/museum MA Ample Make This Bed THE DEPAUL ART MUSEUM SPOTLIGHTS THE ART OF THE QUILT WITH "FROM HEART TO HAND." BY THOMAS CONNORS Everybody Quilt by Mary Maxtion, 1991. 74 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM ART FULL 074_MA_SC_ArtFull_Spring_14.indd 74 2/11/14 11:58 AM