Your Custom Text Here
Featured images in my guest blog for Okan Arts
Patricia Belyea asked me to write a guest post for Okan Arts. How could I say no? I am so excited to share about my story as a quilt collector, traveling for those "ah ha" moments to find the quirky quilts that I love. Over time I learned that "collectors can break their own rules."
I was excited to be included in Eve Khan's article about the exciting things happening with quilts this year. Her article, "Celebrating American Quilts in Shows and Books," highlights a variety of projects that are expanding the contemporary scholarship of American quiltmaking.
“People think of quilts as nostalgia, and we have to get beyond that,” the textiles historian and dealer Laura Fisher, who runs the Fisher Heritage gallery in New York, said while leafing through a coffee table book by one of her customers, the collector Roderick Kiracofe. The book, “Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang/Abrams), is full of bedcovers that she describes as “funky, maverick kind of quilts.”
Mr. Kiracofe has also heard his 300 pieces called “the ugly quilts,” he said in an interview. He started looking for unusual quilts in 2004, after decades of focusing on more traditional pre-1940s patchworks. Loud colors and asymmetrical stripes attract him, as do scraps of synthetic prints, perhaps recycled from 1950s upholstery and 1970s disco shirts.
Quilt from Unconventional & Unexpected
I had the pleasure of chatting with Meg Cox. She has written a beautiful review of Unconventional & Unexpected, and I love that she called me a "tastemaker."
I shared with her, "I always wanted to do a book that would continue the story of The American Quilt and show what happened after 1950." She clearly relates to the quilts I have collected and what they represent for this time period in quilt history.
Click here to read the review.
Colleagues, Friends, and Family,
Ten amazingly talented and distinguished people participated with me to create a stunning book that adds to the written and visual scholarship of American quiltmaking in the last half of the 20th century. My sincere thanks go to Elissa Auther, Sherry Ann Byrd, Natalie Chanin, Ulysses Grant Dietz, Kaffe Fassett, Abner Nolan, Amelia Peck, Denyse Schmidt, Allison Smith, and Janneken Smucker.
The quilts that I have been collecting for the last 15 years sit alongside quilts that I borrowed from other collectors who share my fascination and passion for these works of art. These dynamic, quirky, and soulful quilts make up the beautiful pages of this exquisite coffee table book.
Who were the amazing makers who created these quilts to be used and slept under? How is it that these pieces share such strong similarities to modern and contemporary art? My hope is that you will enjoy and delight in seeing these quilts in new ways.
Expect the unexpected when turning the pages. These may not be what you think of when you hear the word “quilt.” Have you ever considered the back of a quilt or unfinished top? What about a quilt made from polyester double knit? Why did someone take a snapshot of a quilt on a clothesline?
Wait until you see what I have gathered for you!
Release date is 9 September 2014.
Purchasing Information
Unconventional & Unexpected is available at bookstores, fine museum shops, other specialty retailers, and online via Abrams Books.
Please support your local independant booksellers.
Publishers Weekly gave Unconventional & Unexpected a stellar review. I particularly love "messes to masterpieces."
“His quilts range from messes to masterpieces, from the simple (red cross on blue field; Socony Oil’s Pegasus banner) to the intricate ‘Grids with Prairie Points.’ He often shows backs, including one made from Sears catalogue pages. To support his thesis, Kiracofe includes insightful essays by quilt historians (including Denyse Schmidt on ‘The Beauty of Making Do’).”
U&U mentioned in an article that highlights texts about hobbies and crafts:
Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000 by Roderick Kiracofe (Sept.) offers a glimpse into the history of the craft via the author's extensive private collection.
“Tour” the Quilt Barn to see and hear about this exciting and vibrant quilt collection from the last half of the 20th century.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY RODERICK KIRACOFE
