QUILTS CROSS OVER • Combination lock or Digital (optional on most models) • Hundreds of models available Call or Fax for morc info. 861-5900 — FAX 861-4420 OWNING A SPA CAN BE AS EASY AS STEPPING INTO ONE. Soak up the savings with an Aquatic Technologies Spa. A Technologies eafr4 0 - -60% Off Retail , 425-7227 28190 Schoolcraft Livonia, MI 48150 66 • FALL 1992 • STYLE 26190 Schoolcratt (West Bound) 5 a 77 Exit 176_ Schoolvart — (East Bound) LaclOroke DRC N Exit 177 Indeed, the number of people involved has grown as wildly and unpredictably as a Vic- torian crazy quilt. Quilt National, which be- gan in 1979 with 390 works submitted by about 200 artists, has mushroomed into a show that this year attracted 1,178 works by almost 600 artists. The American Quilter's So- ciety in Paducah, Kentucky, itself only seven years old, boasts close to 70,000 members, including many from foreign countries. Although contemporary artists are piecing together their own tradition, they also share in the quiltmaker's heritage. Most are still working within the standard framework of a quilt; that is, two layers sewn together, usu- ally filled with batting. They also draw inspi- ration from similar events, such as births, deaths, and political movements. In the 19th century, for example, a woman might have stitched a quilt as a memorial to a lost child. An analogous 20th century effort, on a much larger scale, is the well-known AIDS Memo- rial Quilt, a tribute to the many lives lost to the disease. And while early quilts may have carried messages championing women's suf- frage or the abolition of slavery, today's might promote concern for the environment or an end to nuclear-weapons proliferation. Vivid imagery is one of the most distinc- tive elements of the new art quilt. Today, a man or woman who wants to commemorate the birth of a baby might use a photographic transfer image of the child's face rather than a conventionally stitched portrait. Or the artist's quilt may have a design that obeys only its own logic, expanding upon or even ignor- ing the standard grid and motifs of the past. In addition to unusual imagery, technolo- gy distinguishes the work of the contempo- rary quilter. Many of today's artists embrace not only new dyeing and photographic tech- niques but the use of the sewing machine, too. Although a factor in quiltrnaking for over 100 years, the machine was formerly consid- ered acceptable only for piecework, not for quilting itself (the stitches covering the sur- face). Hence the controversy when a machine- quilted piece by Caryl Bryer Fallert won Best of Show at the American Quilter's Society competition two years ago. "I can understand why people were upset," says Meredith Schroeder, the society's pres- ident. "But the skill of the quilt and her de- sign played a big role in the prize." According to Carter Houck, author of The Quilt Ency- clopedia Illustrated (Harry N. Abrams in as- sociation with the Museum of American Folk Art, $39.95), such hard-line hostility toward art quilters may be disappearing. "The two camps are beginning to realize that they can learn something from each other," says Houck. "People who are doing traditional work are not doing it to the letter. They're get- ting interested in color, and that comes from the art quilters. It used to be that art quilters had poor workmanship, but that's no longer true at the big competitions and shows." Its no surprise that the combination of fine skill and innovative patterns should have cre- ated a market for contemporary quilts. But at the very top tier, modern-day examples have still not achieved the prices brought by their rarest predecessors. The 1972 Hudson River Quilt, a much-exhibited group project about saving the river, was auctioned at Sotheby's in 1990 for $23,000, a fraction of the $176,000 brought by an 1840 Baltimore album quilt auc- tioned by the same house in 1987. "Contem- porary quilts are not a particularly good investment at this point because there's not Vivid imagery is one of the most distinctive elements of the new art quilt. a significant after-market," says Fletcher. But prices are rising, especially at the avant- garde end of the market Works by artists like Faith Ringgold, whose story quilts of fiber and canvas have celebrated African-American themes, and Tertie Hancock Mangat, who has worked in fiber and mixed media, can bring $14,000 and up, says Bernice Stein- baum, owner of the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in New York. Steinbaum is committed to giving a wider audience to such works, which aren't always, technically speaking, quilts. Last winter, her gallery mounted " The Definitive Contempo- rary American Quilt," a show that included projects executed in metal, wire, paper— even quills and feathers. "A quilt has to be rede- fined," says Steinbaum. "To me, a quilt warms the soul— it may or may not warm the body." However much this definition disconcerts tra- ditionalists, it indicates a change in which all quilters can take pride: Quilts are finally being accepted as art, not craft. As individual creations, they are certain to stretch bound- aries as other fine arts have. ❑