Quaint might be the first word that comes to mind when considering quilts. A hand-stitched quilt can warm the heart, as well as the rest of the body. Yet these bedcovers with all the charm of butter churns often get dismissed as the rural grandmothers’ medium, unworthy of display on the walls of a metropolitan art museum.
When does craft transcend its origins to become art? Is a seamstress an artist? Can patchwork rival painting?
A new exhibit at Denver Art Museum provides some answers. Opening Saturday, the show debuts a dozen Amish and Mennonite quilts recently acquired through purchase and a partial gift from collectors Henry C. Barber and Jill Flint Barber. The fresh dozen adds to the DAM’s Neusteter Textile Collection of more than 300 quilts.
These 12 quilts incorporate colorful geometrics, with few curvilinear lines in sight. Patchwork patterns form exploding stars, kaleidoscopic affairs with zigzags and hummingbird shapes. Some patterns use limited palettes; others incorporate the color spectrum. Some patterns create optical illusions and seem almost modern in design. Elaborate but subtle topstitching — also known as quilting — takes the form of cables and grids, sunflowers and mulberry tree leaves, feathers and wreaths, hearts and half-circles called lamb’s tongues. The quintessential Amish and Mennonite quilt patterns bear poetic but simple names: “Sunshine and Shadows,” “Lady of the Lake,” “Corn and Beans.”
The consulting curator of textile art at the DAM, Alice Zrebiec, directed the installation of the quilts in a gallery on the sixth floor of the North Building. Now based in Santa Fe, Zrebiec received her doctorate in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts-New York University. She held a curator position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 16 years.
With her earnest face, sensible haircut and all-black outfit — much like the Amish — Zrebiec seemed at home with the new quilts. The curator’s large turquoise and silver earrings, however, would never fly within the tight religious rules of social order guiding stripped- down Amish lifestyle.
The Amish live life according to rules set forth by the Ordnung of their community’s church. The Ordnung dictates everything from dress to quilt motifs. The Amish limit interaction with modern society to stay spiritually focused. But to survive, they enter into commercial transactions with non-Amish, or Englishers as they call the rest of us. That’s how these quilts find their way to the marketplace.
With roots in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the Amish emigrated to America in the 18th century. In general, the Amish avoid modern technologies used for vanity rather than need. They live without electricity, central heating or automobiles. The average Amish family includes seven children; almost 25 percent of families have 10 or more children. Amish people end formal schooling after the eighth grade.
Also known as Plain People, pockets of Amish established their conservative communities in 24 states, but most of these quilts are from Pennsylvania. Designs vary from community to community, designated by the color of their horse-drawn buggy tops. Categorizing the quilts requires sleuthing to determine age, origin and a standing quilt quandary: Are variations in color and fabric intentional or inventive solutions to pedestrian problems like running out of fabric?
“What I love about these quilts is that they never give all their information at once,” Zrebiec said. “You can never be sure whether it was creativity or creative make-do.”
Regardless, there’s no question that these quilts demonstrate that creativity can flourish even under the most strident constraints.
Zrebiec asked, “If they put you in a room with three colors — or two — and a pattern, what would you come up with?”
In general, an individual woman painstakingly created the pattern, but a group of women participated in the assemblage. The Amish and Mennonite women who created these quilts never were viewed or valued as artists. Quilting was included on the short list of leisure activities approved by these highly pragmatic, community-oriented people bent on simplicity and spirituality.
The quilts, according to Zrebiec, represent the different groups under the Mennonite and Amish aegis.
“There’s diversity within what outsiders think of as a monolithic group,” said Zrebiec.
When it comes to near artful craft and perfectly delightful, colorful, visual appeal, these quilts have got it covered.
In selecting the quilts, Zrebiec looked for how well the works represented the various groups, how they complemented the DAM’s existing collection, as well as the quilts’ condition.
“Some were well loved and well used, but many times the best ones were put away,” she said. “To minimize conservation, I look for the ones with the fewest imperfections.”
“Amish and Mennonite Quilts From The Big Valley and Beyond”
Textile exhibit. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Avenue Parkway. Saturday through July 13. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays. $13, $10 students and seniors, $5 ages 6-18 (free for children 5 and younger and members, with certain limitations). 720-865-5000 or
