Gee’s Bend is a small rural community nestled into a curve in the Alabama River. Known during the Depression years as "Alabama Africa", it was the site of cotton plantations owned primarily by Joseph Gee. The poor rural hamlet has recently enjoyed huge success as an exhibition of quilts has toured the United States.
The town’s women have developed a distinctive, bold style based on African American colours, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts. The New York Times called their quilts "some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced."
Tania Ketenjian visited the exhibition, which has now reached de Young Museum in San Francisco, where she met curator Alvia Wardlaw and some of the quilt makers.
Gee's Bend quilts
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