Diamond Strip Quiltc. 197579 1/2 x 66 1/4 " (201.9 x 168.3 cm)Cotton corduroy, cotton flannel, cotton velvet, woolGift of William Arnett1990.7.10Backing turned and hand-sewn with running stitches on top. Parallel line quilting. Randomness of piecing, especially in border.152431316Lucinda ToomerTextilesCopyright for this work is under review.MaconMaconUnited StatesGeorgiaTextilesMaconLucinda Toomer grew up on her family's farm in Georgia. In her later years she remembered childhood on the farm as a better time, when "everything people had, they made." She also recalled being awakened each night during her twelfth year, when her mother would come into her room to teach her to sew and quilt. Toomer was very conscious of the effects of color and placement in her quilts, remarking that "a strip divides so you can see plainer...red shows up in a quilt better than anything else...you can see red a long while." In this example, red is used to powerful effect as vertical slashes in long strips, providing strong contrasts in blocks of diamonds. Art historian Maude Wahlman has noted that the pattern of light and dark triangles and squares evokes a special cloth dyed by Nigerian women to symbolize the spots of a leopard, whose attributes of power and courage were admired and emulated in male societies. Toomer was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship in 1983, shortly before her death.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Ancestry and Innovation: African-American Art from the Collection," in Folk Art Magazine. New York: Summer, 2005, 39.TEXTILESAfrican American19701980 1990 7 1 Lucinda Toomer grew up on her family's farm in Georgia. In her later years she remembered childhood on the farm as a better time, when "everything people had, they made." She also recalled being awakened each night during her twelfth year, when her mother would come into her room to teach her to sew and quilt. Toomer was very conscious of the effects of color and placement in her quilts, remarking that "a strip divides so you can see plainer...red shows up in a quilt better than anything else...you can see red a long while." In this example, red is used to powerful effect as vertical slashes in long strips, providing strong contrasts in blocks of diamonds. Art historian Maude Wahlman has noted that the pattern of light and dark triangles and squares evokes a special cloth dyed by Nigerian women to symbolize the spots of a leopard, whose attributes of power and courage were admired and emulated in male societies. Toomer was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship in 1983, shortly before her death.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Ancestry and Innovation: African-American Art from the Collection," in Folk Art Magazine. New York: Summer, 2005, 39.TEXTILESAfrican American