"Quilts and Color" at the MFA

The word "quilting" tends to bring to mind grandmothers and dusty floral prints, yet it is precisely that image the Museum of Fine Arts is seeking to dispel with "Quilts and Color: The Pilgrim/Roy Collection," a new exhibit opening April 6. The exhibit focuses on color theory and abstraction, pairing intricate quilts in riotous colors with the works of 20th-century modernist painters. The result is a beautifully vibrant presentation that makes the art of quilting accessible, compelling, and even—dare we say it—cool.

The exhibit is drawn from the shared collection of artists Gerald Roy and the late Paul Pilgrim, who met at college in California in the 1960s. The two were among the first to recognize quilts as art, and their collection today contains over 3,000 items, about 1,200 of which are finished quilts.

Despite the plethora of options before them, MFA curators and Roy did their best to avoid selecting an overwhelming number of works for the exhibit. The 58 carefully chosen pieces are divided into eight groupings, most centered on a different aspect of color theory. The first room focuses on vibration, the phenomenon resulting from the juxtaposition of complementary colors of equal intensity. Each section is accompanied by a modern work or set of works, including art by Josef Albers, Victor Vasarely, and Sol LeWitt. The paintings and prints are meant to illustrate the unifying principle of each section, yet they also point to the larger cultural relevance of the quilts on display.

The accompanying works are considered to be at the forefront of modern color theory, yet the quilts they hang beside made use of the same principles often a full hundred years earlier. They were avant-garde before there was avant-garde: the makers' skill and intuitive understanding of color relations is reflected in a unique and remarkable fashion.

Why has it taken so long for these quilts to finally be recognized as works of art? Roy believes the answer lies in remaining traces of bias in the art world; quilts were (and remain) taken less seriously because they are domestic objects traditionally made by women. He hopes that the exhibit will be a major step towards the recognition of quilts as being on par with drawing, painting, and other, conventional art forms. It might sound like a lofty goal, but the MFA has devoted enough time, energy, and thought (as well as over 10,000 square feet of gallery space) that it just might work.