A Survey of Gee’s Bend Quilts

January 11 – April 2, 2011
Opening Reception Thursday, February 3, 2011
5:00–7:00p.m.

Gee’s Bend is a small rural community nestled into a curve in the Alabama River southwest of Selma, Alabama. After the Civil War, the freed slaves of Gee’s Bend founded an all-black community nearly isolated from the surrounding world.

The town’s women developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American (and African-American) quilts, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art. The women of Gee’s Bend passed their skills and aesthetic down through at least six generations to the present.