Vintage Quilts: Freeing Color

While modernists were struggling to free color from

imagery, quiltmakers were nonchalantly

setting a standard for abstraction that is hard to meet.

Quilts born of necessity and available fabric

seem perfectly modern when displayed on a wall.

Even quilts made in conventional patterns

can look like mere structure for applying color

(sort of like toast as a structure for applying butter.)

Color depends on technology. It's only in the

mid-20th century that dyers have been

able to give consumers a true range of colors.

Although some turn-of-the-20th-century

women did quite well with the limited

shades available at the time.