Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond April 18, 2010

Founded in the early 1800s by the Gee family as a cotton plantation, Gee's Bend, Alabama, is isolated from much of the nearby countryside since it is surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River. After the Civil War, the formerly enslaved people of Gee's Bend remained on the land as tenant farmers. Generations of Gee's Bend residents had minimal interaction with absentee landlords and outlying communities. Therefore, the citizens of Gee's Bend developed a distinctive local culture--with quilting taking a vital place in their lives. The strikingly innovative, abstract quilts were often the only colorful or decorative furnishing in otherwise plain living spaces. 'Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond' highlights one of Gee's Bend's most original artist, Mary Lee Bendolph, and also explores the work of three of Bendolph's close relatives, her mother, Aolar Mosely, her daughter, Essie B. Pettway, and her daughter-in-law, Louisiana P. Bendolph. In addition to the quilts included in the exhibition, are works by two contemporary Alabama-based artists who have been inspired by the quilts of Gee's Bend, Thorton Dial and Lonnie Holley. The self-taught Dial and Holley explore the African American experience through their assemblage sculptures, which are created from commonplace found objects and found materials, such as furniture, cloth, carpet, and paint.