THE TERM 'ART QUILT'

© Barbara Macey

Ozquilt Network Newsletter Issue #35 MARCH 2000

You might think there's nothing more to say about the term 'art quilt' but I'd like to add a few remarks. When Ozquilt Network Inc began, the phrase 'Australia's organisation for art quilters' seemed a useful description that would be self explanatory to inquirers and prospective members. It still is. I think it's an honest and succinct way to describe our intentional emphasis on non-traditional, contemporary/art quilts. It's necessary for practical reasons as it makes our policy clear to both quiltmakers and the non-quilting public we're trying to reach. We often need to remind ourselves that 'outsiders' are completely unfamiliar with our craft.

'Art' and 'artist' are generic terms that apply to the performing arts, dance, drama and music as well as painting, sculpture, and the humbler branches of all these arts. They are in common use but they do not in themselves indicate superior quality. I know people with no knowledge of art and no interest in it who define a 'real artist' as someone who can draw something they easily recognise, a totally inadequate definition in 2000! Even the crassest representation of Elvis Presley on black velvet is routinely referred to by the general public as art. The term 'art quilt' certainly does not imply a superior quilt. Some are equivalent to Elvis on black velvet, some don't even approach that level. Many of you will have heard me remark that a bad contemporary/art quilt is a much greater disaster than a bad traditional quilt!  Labelling something an art quilt certainly does not imply that it's a work of art.

The terms 'art quilt' and 'art quilter' don't seem very positive or desirable from this point of view. I have reservations because I believe that quilting is a craft, rather than an art.  No matter how much we may wish otherwise, it's outside the fine and any other art scene. Nor can this change in the foreseeable future for strong cultural, political, historical and economic reasons.

On the face of it, these terms are not worth using. So why are they so valued, so coveted? Why use these problematical terms?  If you can get hold of a copy of 'The Culture of Craft', a collection of clearly written essays edited by Peter Dormer (Manchester University Press 1997), you'll find some interesting observations in the introduction on page 6. It's all to do with the very real difference in the status of art and craft and the futility of trying to change the status quo.

Are there suitable alternatives? To call ourselves 'craft quilters' would be meaningless to most people as it's a term they don't know. The term 'fine craft' might be useful if it were in common use but it isn't. A new term would be difficult to create and launch. It takes a lot of effort and millions of dollars that we don't have to launch a confusing term like 'quilt' on the world. Adding the word 'art' makes it a little more comprehensible.

So as long as we don't imagine that using the term 'art quilt' will win over the art establishment, and in spite of its obvious drawbacks, it still seems the best bet. It's already in use in other countries, appearing often in the names of organisations and  exhibitions and in book titles. Many individuals refer to themselves as 'art quilters' too.  It's really not about vanity or superiority or being pretentious. If we can understand the practical reasons that motivate people and organisations (including Ozquilt Network Inc) to use such terms it does make sense.

© Barbara Macey 2000