WASHINGTON, DC — The vibrant quilts on display at the Smithsonian Institution's Art Museum of American Art (SAAM) in the exhibit “Pattern and Paradox: Quilting by Amish Women” are anything but drab. Though Amish communities are widely known for their modest dress and frugal lifestyles that are secluded from the hustle and bustle of the modern world, the quilts on display are a kaleidoscope of patterns and techniques. Wall text explores the apparent contradictions at the heart of these striking pieces, where tradition and innovation, norms and personal creative expression, simplicity and spectacle intersect.
“Patterns and Paradoxes” features 50 quilts selected from a collection of 130 pieces recently donated to the museum by art collectors Faith and Stephen Brown, and were sewn in Amish settlements in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois between the 1880s and 1940s. This period coincides remarkably with the rise of quilting in Amish communities. Although the Amish have been in North America since the mid-18th century, it was not until the end of the following century, after the general quilting boom of the mid-19th century had faded, that women began to widely adopt quilting. Quilting historian and fifth-generation Mennonite quilter in the Amish Mennonite tradition, Janeken Smucker, writes in the exhibition catalog: “As other Americans came to view quilting as outdated, the craft may have become more attractive to the reluctant Amish.”
Exhibition view of “Pattern and Paradox: Amish Women's Quilting” at the Smithsonian Museum of Art
Originally created as bedspreads and keepsakes, these textiles were not envisioned by their makers as exhibits for museums or art collectors. However, in the early 1970s, quilts made in Amish communities became popular among collectors who saw visual similarities between the pieces and the abstract aesthetic of modernism. As a result, quilts began to appear in prominent exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and SAAM's Renwick Gallery. But this fame changed Amish quilters' relationship with their craft.
“The Amish themselves were embarrassed about creating and owning priceless works of art worthy of museum display, an idea that was entirely at odds with their intentions,” writes Leslie Umberger, co-curator of the exhibition. Amish families began to “let go” of these pieces. As with the diverse and ever-evolving patchwork tradition, Amish quilters responded in a variety of ways. Some families began to buy bedding instead of sewing it, while others began making quilts for clients outside the Amish community as a source of income. Similarly, some quilters changed their creative methods to favor color palettes that were less popular among collectors, while others stuck to their guns and continued to make “old dark quilts.”
Clara Beachy, Holmes County, Ohio, “Ocean Waves” (c. 1940), cotton, 79 x 80 in (200.66 x 203.2 cm)
The pieces in “Pattern and Paradox” were made before Amish quilting became mainstream, with bold, geometric, solid-colored pieces woven together with precise quilting – the tiny stitches that hold the quilt's layers together and are often decorated with decorative embellishments. Organized around patchwork piecing patterns, blocks, and variations, the exhibit provides an overview of the eclectic styles and techniques used by Amish women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition also highlights local aesthetic preferences that were popular in certain communities, such as the “strema” (or “bar”) quilt with its broad vertical stripes, a classic pattern from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
To create these incredibly diverse quilts, the women shared cardboard templates and helped each other piece together, mark, quilt and bind their pieces. When squares and rectangles are pieced together, stripes, stars, triangles and sectors tessellate across the quilt top. “Tumbling Block” quilts, made with precision diamond-shaped fabric attached with technically challenging Y-seams, create a remarkable cube-shaped illusion. “Center Square” quilts, sometimes called “plain quilts,” forgo intricate piecework in favor of open expanses of fabric that frame perfectly hand-quilted motifs such as feather wreaths, grapevines, crosshatching and scallops.
Taken together, this collection of Amish quilts reveals how patterns serve as both a framework for tradition and a springboard for dynamic, ever-changing creative experimentation. Even so-called “plain quilts” can be captivating.
Left: Unknown artist, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, “Sun and Shadow / Voyage Around the World” (c. 1930), cotton and wool, 85 x 84 in. (215.9 x 213.36 cm). Right: Unknown artist, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, “Sun and Shadow / Voyage Around the World” (c. 1920), cotton, 78 x 77 in (198.12 x 195.58 cm). Unknown artist, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, “Sun and Shadow / Voyage Around the World” (c. 1930), cotton and wool, 87 7/8 x 88 7/8 in (approx. 223.2 x 223.74 cm). Left: Unknown artist (initials “DL”), Intercourse, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, “Sawtooth Diamond” (c. 1915), cotton and wool, 76 x 78 1/2 in (approx. 193 x 199.4 cm). Center: Unidentified, descendant of Noah Otto family, possibly of Arthur, Illinois, “Center Square / Plain Quilt with Concentric Squares” (nd), cotton, 70 1/8 x 57 5/8 inches (approx. 178.12 x 146.37 cm); Right: Unidentified, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, “Center Diamond Variation” (c. 1930), cotton and wool, 75 x 71 inches (190.5 x 180.34 cm); Left: Unidentified, Holmes County, Ohio, “Tumbling Block” (1940-1950), cotton, 82 x 65 inches (208.28 x 165.1 cm); Center: Unidentified, Holmes County, Ohio, “Tumbling Block, Variation of Stairway to Heaven” (c. 1935), cotton; Right: Unidentified, Holmes County, Ohio, “Tumbling Block” (1930 (c. 1940), cotton and wool, 88 7/8 x 75 3/4 inches (approx. 225.74 x 192.41 cm). Holmes County, Ohio, “Ocean Waves,” detail (c. 1940), attributed to Clara Beechey, cotton, 79 x 80 inches (200.66 x 203.2 cm).
The exhibition “Pattern and Paradox: Amish Women's Quilting” runs through August 26 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th Avenue and G Street, Northwest, Washington, DC). The exhibition is curated by Leslie Umberger and Virginia Mecklenburgh, with collaboration from Anne Hyland and Janneken Smucker.
