int ernat ional show of t he arts of t hread
SIMPLY
MODERNE
#8
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2017
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dozens of artists and designers from all over the world
Amy and David Butler, Di Ford, Misao Wada,
Ségolaine Schweitzer, Bonnie Sullivan,
Kaffe Fassett and many others…
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Exceptional exhibits,
the ANTIQUE WELSH
QUILTS
and PASSACAGLIA
More than 120 selected stands, workshops, live wide-screen demos
and an open space for bloggers to stop and chat in a friendly atmosphere.
www.pourlamourdufil.com
N#8
UK £11.99 - US $17.99 - CAN $21.99 - NZ$24.99 - AUS$24.99 - Printed in USA
APRIL 19 -23 2017
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QUILTS & CRAFTS
NANT ES
Butler
uilt
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Design by
David
SIMPLYModerne
Q
Sewing
ry
The show will open
on Wednesday at 6pm
till 10pm for a special
opening night!
SIMPLY
Moderne
QUILTS & CRAFTS
8
ISSUE N°
2
color
IMPROVISATIONS
I N T E R N AT I O N A L E X H I B I T I O N
curated by NANCY CROW
Color Improvisations 2 is a special invitational
exhibition of contemporary quilts curated by
Nancy Crow, one of the most celebrated and
influential quilt artists and teachers in the
world. Color Improvisations 2 includes 50
large and spectacular quilts by 43 artists
from Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain,
Switzerland, Japan, and the United States. All
of the quilts were made specifically for the
exhibition, which includes a new quilt by
Nancy Crow.
Color Improvisation
Nancy Crow - USA - 2015
by ROBERT SHAW
Moby Dick 3
Kit Vincent - CANADA - 2015
205 x 206 cm
Color Improvisations 2 grew out of what
Nancy Crow calls her “ongoing mission to
bring back the majesty, strength, and energy of
large textile works, specifically large quilts.” In
her introduction to the exhibition’s catalogue,
she asks, “Why not work large? Why not
take advantage of this wonderful attribute
of the quilt? I believe that those of us who
love working with fabric were originally
drawn to this medium by its large forceful
presence and the freedom to use color
joyously.”
219 x 222 cm
36 SIMPLYModerne
SIMPLYModerne 37
Report
Report
Memories of Oaxaca
Anne Parker - USA - 2015
203 x 213 cm
Fire Works / Feuer Werk
Anette Tatchen - 2015
224 x 224 cm
All of the quilts in the exhibition are colorful abstract
compositions that were machine-pieced, primarily
from hand-dyed fabrics, and also quilted by machine.
And all are indeed large and dramatic—between 80
and 90 inches in height and width.
The exhibition premiered at the Museum Tuch+
38 SIMPLYModerne
Technik in Germany in March 2016, and 23 of the
50 quilts were exhibited as part of the 22nd annual
European Patchwork Meeting in Sainte-Marieaux-Mines, in the heart of Alsace in northeastern
France, from September 14-18, 2016. Many of the
participating artists attended the event.
SIMPLYModerne 39
Report
Report
Color Improvisations 2 is a powerful,
groundbreaking exhibition that presents
contemporary quilts as art. Taken as a
whole, the quilts in this show represent
a body of work as compelling, coherent,
and distinctive as the Gee’s Bend,
Louisiana quilts that shook up the art
world when they were first exhibited in
the early 2000s. While each of the artists
included in Color Improvisations 2
maintains a strong individual artistic
identity, the group’s collective use of
solid colors, improvisatory piecing,
and intricate machine quilting are all at
the service of gloriously pure abstract
design.
Nancy Crow, who has been making
pieced quilts for nearly forty years,
has been a pioneer in moving quilts
from a traditional handcraft to an art
medium, from the bed to the wall. As
Jean Robertson, Professor of Art History,
the Herron School of Art and Design and
adjunct professor in Women’s Studies at
Indiana University-Perdue University in
Indianapolis, Indiana, has written: “As an
activist, teacher, and curator, Nancy Crow
was a catalyst and prime mover of the
art quilt movement. Today, she stands at
the forefront of innovative quiltmaking,
and she is one of the premier colorists in
contemporary American art, no matter
what medium one surveys."
Curvilinear 15
Ellin Larimer - USA - 2015
218 x 213 cm
Lupine
Lilian Heer - SWITZERLAND - 2015
210 x 210 cm
Glimpse of my New Country
Connie Carrington - USA - 2015
211 x 213 cm
40 SIMPLYModerne
Crow has taught quiltmaking in
countries around the world, and her
work is represented in the collections
of the Renwick Gallery at the National
Museum of American Art, Smithsonian;
the Museum of Art and Design and the
American Folk Art Museum in New York
City; the Indianapolis Museum of Art; and
the International Quilt Study Center &
Museum at the University of Nebraska,
Lincoln.
SIMPLYModerne 41
Report
Report
Drawing Class
Connie Carrington - USA - 2015
218 x 206 cm
She is the subject of the book Nancy
Crow (Breckling Press, 2006), and
the author of Nancy Crow: Quilts and
Influences (American Quilters’ Society,
1989), Improvisational Quilts (C & T
Publishing, 1995), and other books.
Crow says she has always compared
pieced quiltmaking to painting. “Both
require a strong classical sense of figure/
ground composition,” she explains in the
exhibition catalogue, “and experienced
knowledge of how to mix and create
colors (for quiltmakers, through dyeing
cotton or silk fabrics), a strong sense
of proportions, and drawing ability.
In addition, the quiltmaker must have
a practiced expertise in cutting all
the parts, one at a time, out of fabric
and then pinning/working vertically
on a huge wall. This requires strong
engineering abilities coupled with
common sense to put sometimes
hundreds, if not thousands, of parts
together by sewing each to the next.
Unlike painting, fabric colors, shapes,
and lines are not brushed on or glued
together, but sewn together. And to be
able to cut parts, shapes, and lines by
eye and then to manage color and value
demands hours and hours of practice.
The quilt-maker’s eye must be able to
coordinate infinite calibrations with the
muscle control of hand, wrist, and arm.
The entire operation is physical and
requires strength. It takes obsessiveness,
intensity, practice, practice, practice, and
a great eye.”
A portion of Color Improvisations 2 will
be on view at the International Patchwork
Festival in Sitges, Spain from March 9-12,
2017, and the entire exhibition will be
42 SIMPLYModerne
Projects
shown at the Kurpfälzisches Museum
in Heidelberg, Germany from April
2–August 13, 2017, and at Hallen am
Rhein in Schaffhausen, Switzerland
from September 8–September 30,
2017. Following travel in Europe, Color
Improvisations 2 will be available to
venues in North America in 2018 and
2019. Art historian and curator Robert
Shaw is coordinating the North American
tour of Color Improvisations 2.
For more information about
Color Improvisations 2:
www.colorimprovisations2.org
or contact Robert Shaw at:
[email protected] or (802) 734-2632.
Robert Shaw is an independent scholar and curator and the author
of such critically acclaimed books as American Quilts:
The Democratic Art, The Art Quilt and America's Traditional Crafts.
He has curated exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art, the University
of Michigan Art Museum, the Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival,
and the Dallas Museum of Natural History, and lectured at
the American Folk Art Museum, Sotheby's, the Baltimore Museum of Art,
the de Young Art Museum, and dozens of other venues.
Cogwheels 44
Calling all Birds 50
Dash 56
October 20th 62
Painted Ladies 68
Corsage 74
Organic 80
Rainbow 86
Sous les Alizés 92
Technical lesson with Kathy Doughty
and the project: Mini-Mandalas 106
Technical lesson with Modern Quilt Guild
and the project: Dusky Cactus 114
Blue Dahlia 118