Strips

Louisiana Bendolph, American, born 1960

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2003

Corduroy fabric

Overall: 74 × 69 in. (188 × 175.3 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Evelyn A. and William B. Jaffe 2015 Fund

2021.11.1

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

21st century

Object Name

Quilt

Research Area

Textiles and Costumes

Not on view

Label

. . . I started having visions of quilts. At first, I didn’t pay any attention to them. They just kept coming . . . So I got a pencil and a piece of paper and drew them out . . . Finally I decided that I would get some fabric and make a quilt . . . And I’ve kept on doing it because those images won’t leave me alone. -- Louisiana Bendolph

The subtle shifts in hue within both the red and brown passages of this quilt add complexity and richness to its overall composition. Bendolph’s bold designs follow no pre-established patterns but rather answer to her personal need to make objects of beauty. As the quotation implies, she made quilts with her family as a child, following established quilt patterns, but set this work aside when she left home. Years later, following the successful exhibition of quilts made by her extended family as well as their neighbors in Gees Bend, Alabama, Bendolph renewed her dedication to quilt-making, this time as an art form,

From the 2025 exhibition Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961 Director; Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art; and Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programing

Course History

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

Art History 40.02, The American Century, Mary Coffey, Spring 2025

Art History 40.02, The American Century, Mary Coffey, Spring 2025

Exhibition History

Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 26-August 2,2025.

Provenance

Souls Grown Deep Foundation

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