Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Museums

Excuses, excuses.  I know you've heard them all.  I can't come up with anything original but I was away from home.  New York, in fact.


  Some of you are very clever and can send posts from your iphones.  Not me... but now I'm back, it's time to catch up.

The Brooklyn Museum has an excellent exhibition called "Work'd by Hand" Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts.  It runs until September 15th and then moves to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. from December 20th, 2013 until April 27th 2014.


I highly recommend it.  And there is a great book to accompany the exhibition.


These are only two of many quilts hanging.  Photos are allowed, but no flash.

Wouldn't it be lovely if all the quilts stored in the museums were actually shown to the public?  As a quiltmaker I am frustrated that the beautiful works of art are mostly locked up and virtually invisible.

While in New York I also visited the Folk Art Museum.  It is a tiny space and not one quilt was on show.  However, a little bird told me that there may be a quilt exhibition there later this year...

Amongst all the other galleries and museums, I visited the Met.  What an institution!  A dozen iconic Van Goghs lined up on a wall.


The whole of Austalia has three.

 On the other hand I scoured the giant building and could only find a wholecloth quilt on a bed in the American Furnishings section.


  Their beautiful quilts are languishing in drawers somewhere.  If I was a museum curator...

6 comments:

Janet said...

Welcome back. The quilts must have been fabulous to see.

Cardygirl said...

Great pics...sounds like you have had lots of fun! I agree, why are the beautiful quilts all hidden away?

antique quilter said...

I love the met looking at the furniture did you notice a lot of the fabric on the furniture looked like some of the modern fabric printed today in different colorways?
I bought the Brooklyn Museum book its on the schedule to go visit in June! glad you loved it.
Kathie

Janet O. said...

Ah, Liz, could you straighten out all of those misguided curators for us? : )
Looks like there was plenty to see, even if it was mostly quiltless.
Glad you are safely back home.

Dawn said...

Glad you had a good trip. Sometimes study appointments are a good way to see the quilts. I think many of the institutions have their hands full keeping the lights on and doors open!
Thank you for sharing.

audrey said...

Love the basket quilt. Surely they could come up with some sort of see through material (plastic etc.) to hang in front of a quilt that would stop fading etc.