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I was recently invited to talk about the subject of art quilts by the Quilters Guild of SA. I began by investigating how this term might be defined. To my chagrin I could find no such definition in any book with both "art" and "quilt" in the title. Nor did the American ART QUILT magazine in any issue from the very first attempt to define the domain of the art quilt. The very concept is taken as a given.
It will not do - as recent correspondents have done - to declaim that all quilts have some artistic merit, and that what counts of art is simply a description of some individual's personal response. If a publication or an organisation specifically sets out to promote, exhibit, catalogue, evaluate, and critically assess a category of production called ART QUILTS, then it is necessary to at least reach some agreement about the properties of these works. It is no good to simply say any good, well made, or original quilt that "speaks to one" is to be proclaimed an art-work.
This is a huge subject, for it covers questions about what is art, what is an art-quilt if it is to be considered in the category, WORK OF ART, and then questions of what criteria we need to assess something of a quilt's artistic worth. I leave alone entirely matters to do with money.
This is at the centre of our problem. It is one of the most argued in the arts of the 20th century, and probably in the 21st as well. You can in fact choose from a heap of concepts: I list only ten.
For the Greeks, art works embodied Ideal Form. Since then there have been:
As the beautiful, and latterly as an object of aesthetic contemplation;
Art the mirror of nature - what photographs are sometimes taken to do now.
As that which embodies spiritual values, eg much religious art, and indigenous art;
Art as that which expresses some essential essence, or emotion - eg Expressionism.
Art as pure form or structure in some sense - many, many examples from so-called abstract art: my favourite is Bracus's "Bird"
As imaginative, psychic or spiritual revelation - eg Surrealism.
A work is Art, because the maker says that it is, or intends that it is so.
Art is that which is accepted by the Art Institutions; that is the public and private galleries, publishing houses, daily press etc.
A work of art models new ways for us to understand the world.
I would love to go into the merits of each of these claims. There have been hundreds of books written about every single one of these conceptions of art. A trip to any National Gallery will reveal plenty of examples of these, and quite a few conceptions of art that are not on this limited list. But one needs to notice that none of the above specify how an artwork is to be produced - by paint or pot or pixels, by stylus, stone or stitch. So the status of Art-hood has nothing what so ever to do with the means of production, or even to do with what kind of an object the artwork is. It can be an inscription in sand, or carved from marble, or a mass produced coat hook: it makes no difference to definition. Personally, I like the last idea on the list. However, I am very much aware that the Institutional view is without any doubt the one that prevails out there in Art Land.
As a category the notion of THE QUILT is reasonably clear. Most quilt makers, quilt publishers, and quilt guilds define the quilt in terms of materials and means: three layers (of cloth) stitched together is common enough. So here is the first source of tension between "ART" and "QUILT". One concept has nothing to do with materials and technology, and the other is defined by these very things. Could one stitch together layers of balsa wood with wire? Or old phone books with telephone cords? And I want to know if 2 of the 3 layers that are used in the making, but subsequently are washed away leaving only the middle layer, can still be called a quilt? Rigid definitions have their difficulties. The entire notion of an art work that is also a quilt is now very much circumscribed by what is commonly taken to be cloth, bat and stitch.
There is of course more to it. What ever the style of the quilt, there is the formal basis of its design to consider. The Formal basis is the shapes, colours, lines and patterns that will embody the concept of the quilt. In brief, the Formal Qualities are the design qualities. There are elements: point, line, shape, tone, colour, texture, and volume. There is the grammar of design: contrast and harmony (relative emphasis), unity and diversity (coherence of design), balance and relative size (proportion), and rhythm and pattern (use of repetition). These can be used and abused, but they cannot be eliminated from a visual art work!
Emphasis on this language of design - it was all art schools actually taught for years - led to an ism known as Formalism. A good deal of so called abstract art is in fact formalism; aesthetic form just is the content of the work. There are plenty of so-called Art Quilts from traditional sources that belong in this category too. However, a complete ignorance of this language of design is pretty much always apparent in the finished work. I personally feel that a real fluency in the materials, techniques and design forms are simply required, before one can be extravagant enough to abandon any or all of these! Lack of artistic training simply does show.
What follows is very personal, and is simply a starting point. I must take it as given that the quilt is the original and sole work of its author. Take no notice of the order below because this is a personal matter too. But self-assessment has to be a part of what artists do: in fact one of the big motivations for me to go and book a gallery for a show is so that I CAN SEE WHAT I HAVE MADE. I want to know if a body of my work measure up to these criteria.
Integrity: I judge my work - and others' work - on its integrity as an artefact. No cheap tricks and cliches, no formal clangers, no sense that something is missing. I nail my soul to the wall in that gallery, and feel very exposed, and vulnerable. It had better all be there!
Presence: This is the indefinable IT, the feeling that here is a personality, an object with character, and what Shapiro calls "a charismatic glow, a resonance." This is something quite apart from the trivial "I like that" response. More like a "Wow" response. Presence can be also be found there in works we may discover to be edgy, cruel, ugly, depressing, or even obscene.
Transformation: the artist has worked that eternal magic of transforming some mundane and ordinary materials into another species of object entirely. Picasso once took the handlebars and seat of a bicycle, and made a bull's head, without in anyway compromising these components: that kind of transformational magic. I think that some quilters are quite good at this: eg most colour wash quilts.
Finesse: I have no idea how else to describe this property. No matter what agonies the artist has endured, the work should appear like the Sistine Ceiling, effortless. The appearance of clumsy laboured fudging of line, and smudging of definition presuppose a lack of competency. I think I require technical fluency in my art-works. By the way small children have huge lack of concern in such matters, and yet are so wonderfully fluent with their imagery. It is this that is the source of much of the charm in their works. Klee aimed to re-invent the innocence of child art - but he did it with huge finesse. I refer you to his "Twittering Machine". That is finesse!
Multiple layers of response. I want to look, and look again. The work must sing to me in several harmonies. It may or may not be superficially pretty or appealing, but at the very least I want the formal values to feel right. I want the images, and the metaphors they carry to inform me. I want its sensory surfaces to engage me ( so you do not touch at exhibitions, but the feel is none the less important). I want to respond with the intellect, the emotions, the senses, and my soul.
Intention of the maker. I want to feel what the artist felt- here there is the element of communication. Judy McDermott's quilts in a recent show only made sense in the context of her work at the Long Bay Gaol. Mind you - there are plenty of art works entirely enigmatic, and intentionally so, for they set up a tension between you and the work: this too must be available to scrutiny. This is an extremely complex area, and depends or an informed audience. And so -
Contemporary practice. Quilters, like all other art makers, need to be aware of what is going on out there in art-world. For example, art quilts that played with surfaces, like Barbara Macey's black on black wall quilts, were the concerns of 20 years ago. Revisiting these formal investigations now would require a new justification. Minimalist quilts have also had their day, along with painting of similar concerns. Environmentally grounded works are current now, along with sidelights on the established history of the nation, and reconciliation.
Craftsmanship. This one is really a matter of judgement, for the degree of skill exemplified in the work must be in harmony with its content and intentions. What more can one say? Crude stitchery, rough piecing, off-square edges could all be thoroughly in keeping with the conceptual foundations of the work (see Jan Irvineā's exquisite little quilts).
Extending the medium. However, I think that the art-quilt ought somehow to extend the boundaries of what we understand a quilt to be. Perhaps Wendy Lugg's darned and darned again fragments do just that - make us reconsider what it is that makes a textile a quilt. Ruth Hadlow's Travel Wagga consists of leaves form different parts of the country, carefully sewn together with red thread. This art work is not a quilt in the traditional sense, but refers to quilting traditions in ways that invites a dialogue with her Now we might again consider my little tea bag quilt, for what it means.
The body of work. I have made this a tenth consideration because of course we need ten points. But quite often a work in isolation from all the other things the artist has made is sometimes the poorer for lack of company. Some artists work in series, or pursue an interest, a style, or a form or a subject over many years. Failure to be aware of this special context for a work can see it done injustice. And again, some artists produce Landmark Works from time to time, signalling a change in concern, direction, style, technique or any or all of these. In Wendy Lugg's recent show I suspect that this is indeed the case.
Now to quote Christopher Leitch:
Christopher Leitch, in the 'Crossing Borders' exhibition catalogue, 1995, wrote:
"Ironic, humorous critical and sometimes savage, these artists use textiles to investigate, disassemble and reconfigure Australian history, culture and identity."
How many quilt makers out there, of what ever style, investigate, dis-assemble and re-configure aspects of our history, our culture and our identity?
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