Salty Lemons

Collection of Joanna S. Rose, "Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts"
Upper East Side, NY from my 2011 archive

March 31, 2011

Red and White

Speaking of collections, can you imagine owning more than one thousand quilts? Joanna S. Rose has such a collection of red and white American quilts. I cannot imagine owning more than one thousand of anything. Not that I would not love to have a large collection (artwork), but the issue is how to store and care for those items. Six hundred and fifty quilts in her collection were on display at the Park Avenue Armory for six days. I wish it had been on exhibit longer, but the admission was free as a gift to New York City, so I understand it could not have gone on forever. Thank you.

The Park Avenue Armory is an incredible space. It has a 55,000 square foot drill hall, perfect for massive installations. When the space is used effectively, it has a jaw-dropping, wow factor. I could have spent hours looking at each quilt, each pattern, each stitch, at each arrangement of quilts, and at the installation as a whole. The installation had so many visual layers and was an artwork in itself.

It was great to witness so many people excited about quilts. I am sure they will never look at one in the same way. Quilts are one of the forgotten craft objects that you do not spend much time with in a museum, unless you are genuinely interested. I saw a show back in 2006 at the de Young Museum that I credit for bringing this art form back into the spotlight.

After we returned home, I mentioned to The Swede that I thought it was amazing that only red and white quilts were on display, what restraint by the curator and the collector. He said, "Well no, I did see one quilt that had small yellow squares on it, about thirty to forty of them." What? Where was I? I wish I had seen that quilt and to of course, photograph it. I wonder how many other quilts had surprises on them.

archives: Art