ABC INTRODUCES RUG COLLECTION
BASED ON GEE'S BEND QUILTS
Gee's Bend Rug Collection was introduced at a reception at ABC Carpet & Home on May 3.
NEW YORK -- ABC Carpet & Home has introduced a limited edition collection of hand knotted rugs based on the works of the Gee's Bend Quilt Collective in Gee's Bend, AL.
The Gee's Bend Rug Collection was unveiled on May 3 at a reception on ABC's Sixth Floor. Jerome Weinrib owner and chairman, and Graham Head, vice chairman of ABC Carpet, hosted the event.
"We are thrilled to utilize our capabilities to honor the incredible artistic talent of Gee's Bend and share their story," commented Head. The ABC rug collection was developed after a licensee of the Gee's Bend Quilt Collective approached ABC Carpet & Home. That meeting led to the development of the Gee's Bend Rug collection. The quilter of Gee's Bend will receive a royalty from each rug sold.
More than 30 rugs are in the collection. They are made in Turkey in flat weave construction using the patchwork style of the original quilt designs.
Turkish women used vintage materials ranging from old kilims to blue jeans and then pieced them together to recreate the Gee's Bend designs.
The rugs represent a cross-pollination of folk art skills from widely disparate cultures. The Turkish artisan used only the book, Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts, as a reference to create the rugs.
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Original Gee's Bend "Housetop" 8-block variation quilt was made circa 1975
by Linda Pettway
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Detail of Turkish rug based on "Housetop" quilt
retails for $3,299
in 6'4" x 7'8" size
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The resulting rugs are therefore artistic adaptations rather than copies of the quilts.The rugs are available in an assortment of sizes, based on both the size of the original quilt and in traditional rug dimensions. Custom sizes are also available. Suggested retail price points are in the $68 per sq. ft. range.
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Original Gee's Bend
"Two-Sided Quilt" was
made circa 1973 by Essue Bendolph Pettway
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Detail of Turkish rug based on "Two-Sided Quilt."
Rug retails for
$3,799 in 6'10" x 8' 3" size
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Gee's Bend, AL is a small, rural African American community owned and occupied by descendents of former slaves that once inhabited the area. Generations ago the women of Gee's Bend began constructing quilts as a means of survival to keep warm. They collected scraps of clothing and textiles, then pieced them together in an experimental manner inspired only by there own personal expression. The result was quilts of exceptional artistic caliber.
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Original Gee's Bend
"Work Clothes Quilt"
was made circa 1973
by Annie Mae Young
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Detail of Turkish rug based on "Work Clothes" quilt. Rug retails for $3,599
in 6'8" x 7' 11" size
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They were discovered by art historian, William Arnett in the late 1990's while he was perusing a book on African American quilting. The Quilts of Gee's Bend exhibition has appeared in many of America's Art Museum, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Whitney Museum in New York and The High Museum in Atlanta. The Quilts have also appeared as a series of United States postage stamps.
5.15.07