What is so "ignorant" about the article?   Complain, complain, complain.....

John


----- Original Message -----
From: "Carolyn Breedlove" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 12:21 PM
Subject: Re: Wall Street Journal article -- "Museums Cozy Up To Quilts"


> Personally, I found the article patronizing and rather ignorant.  We have
> had a quilt exhibit, & yes, it is a craft with a history going back and
> abroad far beyond Americana, when it was used as armor, for example.  It
has
> been used as social commentary, as an outlet for women's pent-up artistic
> impulses, and certainly as a vehicle for creating beauty ("art") by
> recycling, literally creating something out of nothing.  But if you think
> quilting at its highest level of accomplishment is not art, you cannot
have
> seen the mind-boggling complexity, improvisation, and color sense of truly
> fine quilts (and, being at a historic site, I'm speaking strictly of
> historic work, not even the new use of quilting in ways far from its older
> functional purposes).  The Bayeux Tapestry is just sewing, right?
>
> Carolyn Breedlove
> Kent Plantation House
> Alexandria, LA
> [log in to unmask]
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kim Dixon" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 8:25 AM
> Subject: Re: Wall Street Journal article -- "Museums Cozy Up To Quilts"
>
>
> > I have a mixed opinion about this article.  At first,
> > I thought people questioning whether or not quilts
> > were actually art, rather insulting.  The amount of
> > time, technique skill and shear effort it takes to
> > produce even one twin size quilt surpasses many
> > painters considered to be of "high art" quality.  Just
> > creating the design and picking out the colors alone,
> > can be overwhelming!  But then I had to stop and
> > think.  See, I'm a quilter and I have gone to several
> > quilt shows and the work that is submitted to many of
> > these shows are absolutely amazing!  Yet, I do not see
> > these type of quilts in many of the museum shows I
> > have seen.  So maybe it is not the genera that is the
> > problem, but the museum profession's understanding of
> > what is an outstanding piece of quilt artwork.
> >
> > Kim Dixon
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- Kimberly Kenney <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > I saw this article through another list, and I
> > > wondered what you all thought about it.  I won't
> > > comment now, though I do have an opinion...
> > >
> > > Kim Kenney
> > > Curator
> > > McKinley Museum
> > >
> > > *********************************************
> > >
> > > "MUSEUMS COZY UP TO QUILTS"
> > >
> > > It's High Season for Blankets,
> > > But Patrons Ask: Is It Art?
> > > Competing with El Greco
> > >
> > > By BROOKS BARNES
> > > Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
> > >
> > > Museum curators have a lot to worry about in these
> > > tough times: attendance,
> > > security, damaged art.
> > > And now ... bedbugs?
> > >
> > > >From Colorado to Connecticut, some of the season's
> > > biggest blockbuster
> > > exhibits
> > > have nothing to do with van Gogh and Vermeer --
> > > they're all about quilts.
> > > Indeed, the kind of bedcovers that look like
> > > something
> > >
> > > from Aunt Edna's
> > > boudoir
> > > have made it to a surprising number of big-city
> > > museums, from "The Quilted
> > > Surface" in Columbus, Ohio, to "The Quilts of Gee's
> > > Bend," which will hit
> > > the
> > > Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Another museum on the
> > > tour -- New York's
> > > august
> > > Whitney Museum of American Art.
> > >
> > > But here's a question: Is it art? Curators and
> > > auctioneers are quick to
> > > point
> > > out that this is legitimate stuff, with its own
> > > masterworks and history.
> > > Plus,
> > > they say, quilts are great for attendance, pulling
> > > in
> > > a lot of people who
> > > wouldn't otherwise set foot in a museum. But many
> > > everyday museum-goers say
> > > they're surprised to see the usual fare replaced by
> > > beaux-arts blankies:
> > > This
> > > stuff's not art, they say -- it's crafts.
> > >
> > > Disappointing
> > >
> > > Kelly Howard, for one, made a recent trip to the UBS
> > > PaineWebber Art Gallery
> > > in
> > > Manhattan after friends raved about its exhibit of
> > > rare Tibetan artifacts.
> > > Instead, she found a show called "Six Continents of
> > > Quilts," which is set to
> > > appear in national and international museums for the
> > > next four years. "To be
> > > honest, I'm a little disappointed," the New York
> > > actress says. Two of the
> > > showpieces -- one with yellow police tape woven into
> > > it and another that
> > > incorporated computer circuitry -- did catch her
> > > eye.
> > > "I'm glad those two
> > > are
> > > hanging on a wall," she says, because they would
> > > "hurt
> > >
> > > somebody on a bed."
> > >
> > > This isn't the first time quilts have made the
> > > museum
> > > scene. The Whitney
> > > mounted the first major-museum quilt show back in
> > > 1971, and a Civil War-era
> > > quilt sold for $264,000 at Sotheby's in the in the
> > > mid-'90s. But in general,
> > > these pieces rarely made it beyond folk-art museums
> > > and the historic-homes
> > > circuit -- until now. Suddenly, quilts seem to be
> > > coming out all over, with
> > > eight big shows hitting art museums around the U.S.
> > > this year. The latest
> > > development: quilt subgenres. Indianapolis is
> > > cozying
> > > up to 50 food-related
> > > works, while Yale University Art Gallery is
> > > highlighting "Nine
> > > African-American
> > > Quilters."
> > >
> > > After all, adherents argue, if mosaics and collages
> > > are art, why not quilts?
> > > "They're highly refined objects that often address
> > > important historical
> > > themes," says Nancy Druckman, director of Sotheby's
> > > folk-art department.
> > > Also,
> > > the nation has 20 million quilters -- a hefty,
> > > built-in audience for any one
> > > of
> > > these displays.
> > >
> > > But there may be another, more prosaic reason for
> > > the
> > > quilt craze: These
> > > shows
> > > are cheap to mount. And museums need that,
> > > especially
> > > at a time when
> > > attendance
> > > is falling, outside funding is drying up and
> > > insurance
> > >
> > > costs are soaring.
> > > Insuring a quilt exhibition costs "peanuts" compared
> > > with even a modest
> > > painting or sculpture show, says Michele Twyman, who
> > > handles museums for
> > > Chubb
> > > insurance. Shipping's cheaper, too: While a large
> > > painting may cost $1,000
> > > to
> > > transport from Houston to New York, quilts of the
> > > same
> > >
> > > size can go for about
> > > $400. "They're a cinch compared to traditional
> > > artworks," says Jonathan
> > > Schwartz, president of Atelier 4, a New York
> > > art-shipping outfit.
> > >
> > > An Easy Sell
> > >
> > > Better still, quilts are an easy sell to finicky
> > > corporate sponsors who
> > > usually
> > > like uncontroversial art. Even Kenneth Lay, former
> > > chief executive of Enron,
> > > is
> > > a sponsor of "Gee's Bend." (The show features denim,
> > > corduroy and
> > > cotton-scrap
> > > quilts by African-American women in rural Alabama.)
> > > "Everybody wants a piece
> > > of
> > > it," says Shelly Zegart, the show's consulting
> > > curator. The Museum of Fine
> > > Arts, Houston expects the show to attract 110,000
> > > visitors during its 54-day
> > > run there -- on a par with the "Masterworks from El
> > > Greco to Picasso" show
> > > that
> > > will follow it.
> > >
> > > Still, some visitors hoping for Brancusi are
> > > disappointed to find batting.
> > > Dallas teacher Michelle Woodall was thinking about
> > > hitting the Houston
> > > museum
> > > as part of her junior high class's upcoming field
> > > trip
> > >
> > > to the Johnson Space
> > > Center. But when she saw the fall exhibition
> > > schedule,
> > >
> > > she nixed the plan.
> > > "Quilts that keep you warm, in an art museum?" she
> > > says. "I'd lose all my
> > > credibility."
> > >
> > > She may want to brace for more shows like it,
> > > though.
> > > Quilting is just one
> > > piece of a broader patchwork of fields that are
> > > gaining recognition in the
> > > art
> > > world. Glass, ceramics, clothing, even "fiber arts"
> > > (grass baskets) are
> > > showing
> > > up in big museums at a time when, coincidentally or
> > > not, budgets are at
> > > their
> > > tightest in a decade. The St. Louis Art Museum is
> > > showing "The Art of
> > > African
> > >
> > === message truncated ===
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
> > http://finance.yahoo.com
> >
> > =========================================================
> > Important Subscriber Information:
> >
> > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
> http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
> information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail
message
> to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read
"help"
> (without the quotes).
> >
> > If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message
to
> [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read
"Signoff
> Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message
to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help"
(without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).