In the Q-niverse: Quilts and Color exhibit at the Boston Museum

The contemporary art joining the Mixtures gallery is by Josef Albers, a major influence in Gerald Roy’s earlier art studies. This piece, Gay Desert from around 1947-1954, combines similar values of pinks, oranges and golds in Albers’ recognizable style. The blending of colors in the print and the quilts come from the use of similar value, analogous colors. The eye imagines a third color is present where two colors meet. Included in this group is a Wild Goose Chase quilt from the 1880s, a four-poster Sunburst quilt from 1856 and a deeply-colored Double Irish Chain from the 1920s that simply glows.

The Harmonies gallery features the most Amish quilts of the groupings. Amish quilters seem to have an innate understanding of color, and their unusual color combinations are striking and appealing. The quilts evoke music with their names: Vivaldi, Brahms and Bach. The quilt patterns include Sunshine and Shadow, Floating Bars, Snails Trail and Thousand Pyramids. Expansive cuts of purple, teal and burgundy balance with other colors in the quilts. Bridget Riley’s Elapse from 1982 represents the contemporary art world in this gallery. It is very delicate compared to the bold imagery of the Amish quilts, but the colors are harmonious and the lines flow musically.Gradations are represented in contemporary art by Victor Vasarely’s Los Angeles from 1981. This swirling image of oranges deepening into brown offset a gradation of blues. The quilts masterfully represent gradations in the Log Cabin-Barn Raising variation by Mrs. Herrick of Massachusetts in 1879, a Sunshine and Shadow Mennonite quilt from the 1880s and a boldly colored Joseph’s Coat quilt, also Mennonite, from about 1880. Take time to study Mrs. Herrick’s quilt to appreciate the center block embroidery and the exquisite colors selected for each ring of the Barn Raising set. How the quilt is mounted for exhibit is also interesting. Due to its age and the practice of adding lead salts to silk, this quilt needed extra care to attach it to the fabric box hanging on the gallery wall.

In the Contrasts portion of the exhibit, more traditional quilts are found. Roy explained that early in the collection, he and Pilgrim did not seek these quilts because they were focused on the interplay of color throughout the quilts. Traditional quilts using white backgrounds make the shapes on them stand out. What they later realized was the contrast of the background made the foreground elements more visible, highlighting the color play in the motifs. Very few of the quilts in the collection are appliquéd, in part because they preferred the more colorful pieced quilts, and in part because applique was popular among other collectors. Yaacov Agam’s untitled work from about 1970 beautifully represents the contemporary art in the contrast category.

Log Cabin-style quilts make up the Variations gallery and are contrasted with Sol LeWitt’s woodcuts, Bands (Not Straight) in Four Directions. A number of Sunshine and Shadow quilts and Barn Raising sets are represented, spanning the 1870s-1930s. A surprising assortment of pinks, yellows, greens and blues are found in a Straight Furrow variation quilt from Pennsylvania from the 1870s. And a very unusual Barn Raising variation, also from Pennsylvania in the early 1900s, is framed with deep reds in the blocks and borders, showing the versatility of this popular quilt block.

Double Wedding Ring Quilt Pilgrim / Roy Collection
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Optical Illusion gallery houses some of the most intriguing, challenging and creative examples of color placement. Geometric designs form circles of pattern and color that widen and shift across the quilts. Tumbling Blocks appear in both the quilts and the contemporary art selection from Victor Vasarely (MEH2, from the series Homage to the Hexagon, 1969). Much skill was needed to beautifully appliqué the hundreds of circles on Bunches of Grapes, from about 1875. Two different Thousand Pyramid quilts display how wool fabrics absorb light while cotton fabrics reflect light. Hexagon-loving quilters can spend hours studying the Field of Diamonds quilt, from about 1860. Black hexagons outline diamond shapes, also made of hexagons, and all with little clusters of orange hexagons forming an overlay of circles on the quilt. Its maker was genius in her execution of this quilt.

The final gallery, Singular Visions, houses unconventional examples of quilts and tied comforters. There is an Amish-made Streak of Lightning quilt with patterned fabric, a1920s Tumbler’s Quilt made in horizontal strips (but whose pieces don’t align) and a Seven Sisters quilt with a dozen full blocks of seven stars in circles and four half blocks. Did the maker actually cut those blocks, or just not piece full blocks? The cover quilt on the show catalog and other marketing material is a Double Wedding Ring, not with typical white background fabrics, but crafted from bright purple. Only one full ring is made of the same colored melons although four melons of each colorway are contained in the quilt. The maker grouped the melons, linking most into partial rings while scattering the other melons around completing the overall design. The art representing this gallery is Sister Mary Corita Kent’s N is for Caution (Throw Caution to the Wind), done in 1968. (Kent is also known for her Rainbow Swash design that was painted on a Boston natural gas storage tank–known to commuters as a landmark–and the 1985 Love postage stamp.)

Thousand Pyramids Quilt Pilgrim / Roy Collection
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Information and a ton of resources about this incredible exhibit can be found at the museum’s website, www.mfa.org. The exhibit will run through July 27.