AT&T

News Releases

September 19, 2007

AT&T Sponsors U.S. College Tour by Gee’s Bend Quilters
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February 13, 2008

AT&T and Gee's Bend Quilters Create Artwork to Commemorate Black History Month
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The Story of the Quilts
of Gee’s Bend

The quilts of Gee’s Bend, Ala., have blurred boundaries between the definitions of folk art and high art. The quilt designs were strongly influenced by the European, Native American and African civilizations that underlay the creolized African American culture of the Deep South. This unique cultural gumbo, developed for several generations in a close-knit community, resulted in the Gee’s Bend quilts, which resemble so many other art forms yet is unmistakably unique.

This tradition of quilt making in Gee’s Bend goes back many generations; the remarkable quilts have survived from the 1920s to the present. Improvisational designs, asymmetry, multiple patterns and an almost minimalist aesthetic characterize the Gee’s Bend quilts. While they are based on conventional quilting techniques and approaches, Gee’s Bend quilt designs are often likened to abstract modern painting, and bear little resemblance to familiar quilt patterns such as wedding rings and rising suns.

Because the inhabitants of Gee’s Bend were left largely to themselves for nearly one hundred years after the end of the Civil War in 1865, many of the community’s traditions and folkways survived virtually unchanged well into the 20th century. But isolation is only half the story of Gee’s Bend; the other half is tradition. Quilting is one of the most important of these traditions.

These women and their ancestors, isolated for decades by geography and extreme poverty, maintain lives rich with family, faith and community. As a result, they have quietly created one of the most astonishingly beautiful and original bodies of art work.

The Making of the AT&T - Gee's Bend Quilt

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Photo Credits: Matt Arnette, © 2008