She did, and I sold quite a few of her quilts during my second stay in Germany. Her quilts Sew Low and Vegetation are part of the Eskenazi Health Art Collection. I made only babies’ quilts then because our second son, Brandon, was on the way. Her paycheck was not a whole lot, and sometimes she would have to work several weeks before getting any pay. Pine Burr Quilt Instructions Courtesy Loretta Pettway Bennett The Pine Burr Quilt was designated the official quilt of Alabama by the Legislature on March 11, 1997. This book and exhibition are part of a growing family of research projects about the African American community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, and its quilts. Nonetheless, Bennett graduated and married her high school sweetheart, Lovett “Bennett” Bennett on July 7, 1979. I had the last and final part of the project, which was to make sure the quilt was quilted. She is associated with the Freedom Quilting Bee, where her mother, Qunnie Pettway, worked, and with the Gee’s Bend quilt-makers. In 1996 we visited Tucson, Arizona, for a three-day convention—another hot place, but lots of rain showers like mist from a water sprinkler. The 20th century was drawing to a close. Like Loretta P. Bennett, she is a descendent of Dinah Miller (Pettway is Dinah’s great-granddaughter). This is where he started and completed his basic training. The school bus would always be overloaded, three persons to a seat, and when there were no more seats the remaining of us students would stand for the entire long ride. I can recall one summer we were greeted with a summer shower of white snow on the fourth of July in 1984. As to what happened to the quilt, I really don’t know. After graduating from High School in 1978, I married my high-school sweetheart, Lovett Bennett, on July 7, 1979. As a junior in high school I took a French class, not knowing that a few years later I would actually have the opportunity of hearing a different form of French being spoken. There were no school buses. Bennett remarks on the naming traditions of Gee’s Bend using her family as an example: “Aunt Lucy was the sister of my father, Tom O. Pettway, Jr. An interesting thing is that Aunt Lucy’s middle name was Tomo. She endured a thirty-year marriage to an abusive husband, with whom she had seven children. She and her siblings frequently worked on her grandfather, Tank Pettway’s, farm growing cotton, corn, peanuts, and sweet potatoes, among other crops. “Since quilting was such a part of [our] lives, I believe the seed of creativity was planted into my genes.” Finally, after hearing all the great news reports about my ancestors’ quilts, I decided to try my hand at it. Loretta Pettway Bennett, Greg Kucera Gallery Installation Views 2012 Quilts. We also visited the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, and later on we visited Rotterdam, which is also located in the Netherlands. I came to realize that my mother, her mother, my aunts, and all the others from Gee’s Bend had sewn the foundation, and all I had to do now was thread my own needle and piece a quilt together. He would always say, “I am old lady Sally [Miller]’s son.” He would tell us the part about his mother being a squaw (she was half-Indian) and a midwife, which was something that brought great pride to my grandfather. Bennett donated this quilt to the Alabama Council of the Arts, where it now hangs on the walls of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Like Loretta P. Bennett, she is a descendent of Dinah Miller (Pettway is Dinah’s great-granddaughter). I came to realize that my mother, her mother, my aunts, and all the others from Gee’s Bend had sewn the foundation, and all I had to do now was thread my own needle and piece a quilt together. We had to shovel snow three to four times a day for three years. Hotel was the area where the old cemetery was located. Each week, we search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. I attended school in Gee’s Bend until seventh grade. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Make a Quilt Window The clothing and cars also displayed bright yellow, orange, pink, and purple colors. Loretta Pettway Bennett is an American artist. This was not an easy job, and I can remember we hardly ever complained. From this fellowship, her and her mother created a “Pine Burr” quilt, the state quilt of Alabama. My father and his father carry the middle initial O. for Ottaway, a name that goes back to an original Pettway slave called Ottaway.”. We also visited the famous Neuschwanstein Castle (this is the castle that is shown at the beginning of Walt Disney movies). I would love to complete this quilt one day in memory of my late aunt Lucy T. Pettway. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. He enlisted in the U.S. Army right out of high school, and by this time he was stationed in Germany, in a small town by the name of Blankenheim. She is the 5th generation to be born in Gee's Bend and traces her family back to Dinah Miller, who according to legend was the first slave to arrive in Gee’s Bend from Africa. I remained in Gee’s Bend along with our two boys, and Bennett went back to El Paso to oversee the packing for our last and final PCS move to finish off his military career. Bennett’s family home did not receive running water or paved roads until 1975, when she was 15 years old. She and her daughter Brigitte taught me how to knit. Jan 4, 2016 - Loretta Bennett, 2007 Quilted fabric 68 x 66 inches | Greg Kucera Gallery | Seattle We lived in a small American/German community, and this time we got mail five days a week, but still no American television. I made and kept a copy of that baby-quilt pattern, and most of the baby quilts that I have made and given away are copies of that pattern. Pettway Bennett was among the quilters who were driven on buses for the launch of the exhibit, where they were treated like royalty and entertained the cosmopolitan arts crowd with “songs of … In El Paso we encountered another language setback. After I graduated I worked for an ob-gyn doctor for a short period of time before moving on again. LORETTA PETTWAY oretta Pettway journeyed to Berkeley with fellow quilters Mary Lee Bendolph and Loretta Bennett. Loretta Pettway Bennett. —Loretta Pettway in "Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts" Prints. Loretta Pettway Bennett created the Pine Burr Quilt while participating in the Alabama State Council on the Arts Folklife apprenticeship program. We traveled to several other countries such as Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria (where the 1976 Winter Olympics took place). Brian walked to school and I also walked to my job. He didn’t talk a lot, normally, but weekends were different. The other two Gee’s Bend artists had traveled to Paulson before, and they commented occasion-10.01.2009 Old Beauty, 2007 Color softground and spitbite aquatint etching Paper size: 28" x 24"; Edition of 50 Although I am not a painter, someday I would like very much to try my hand at painting. It was not long before cotton completely faded away from Gee’s Bend and another crop of hard work was born—the birth of cucumbers. The next couple of years were really busy now, with two small boys around the house and no time for sewing. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. This time I made a “Double Wedding Ring” and a couple of baby quilts during my days off from work. ( Log Out /  We were isolated to the point that we only received mail three times a week—Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—on a good week. I enjoyed very much working in the medical field. Because so many people in Gee’s Bend have the name of Pettway, people get middle names that let others know who their fathers are, so nobody marries a close cousin by mistake. Burbach also was a small and isolated town. In 1999, she was profiled in a Los Angeles Times Pulitzer Prize–winning article, Crossing Over: Mary Lee’s Vision. I got to see another side of Germany, as many houses were decorated with flower boxes of red geraniums and pansies sitting on the window ledges, with white and black-trimmed houses in the background.”Some of her pieces, such as her early 2000s, duo-tone blocks and strips works, remind the viewer of Bauhaus ways of color usage, or the organization of Piet Mondrien. ", Drupal Theme and Development By: Cheeky Monkey Media, Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt, "Housetop" variation with center medallion. Growing up in Gee’s Bend as a young girl, I kind of knew what my life was going to be like. It was supposed to be a “Flower Garden,” which was a very popular quilt pattern around the early-to-mid-seventies. 200.7 x 152.4 cm, 79 x 60 ins. The only difference is that on the German Autobahn there is no speed limit. Bendolph was one of many from Gee’s Bend who accompanied Martin Luther King, Jr. in his march at Camden, Alabama in 1965. She exchanged craft traditions with local Germans often, recalling that her neighbors taught her to knit and she sold a few of her mother’s quilts among her friends in Germany. We would make weekly trips to Selma to buy scraps of cloth that sold for two dollars per bag. Throughout her travels in Europe and the American Southwest, Bennett always marveled at each culture’s distinct use of color. I wrote and asked my mother to send me some of her quilts so I could sell them for her. Most of today’s Gee’s Bend community are descendants from this painful past, with many still bearing the name Pettway. I heard stories about his grandmother Dinah, told by Arlonzia Pettway (my mother’s first cousin). Occasionally we had to turn on the heat during the summer months. In May 1984, it was time to move again—as the Army would say, PCS—back to Germany, this time Burbach. She describes that moment as, “There my eyes were opened, and it touched me in a way as to question myself: Can I make a quilt that someday might hang on the wall of a museum?” Determined to carry on her ancestor’s legacies, Bennett applied for and received a fellowship grant from the Alabama State Archive Council on the Arts to study the fine details of Gee’s bend quilt-making. But in the springtime things were different. Gee’s Bend schools went through desegregation in Bennett’s seventh grade year, and were shut down shortly thereafter. As a young child living in Gee’s Bend, I grew up on a farm and had to work in the fields. Made between the 1930s and the present, the Gee's Bend quilts’ bright patterns, inventive color combinations, lively irregularities and unexpected compositional variations make them outstanding examples of modern art. There, Bennett worked with the German Air Force, but our living conditions there were somewhat better than the last time. It was like an entire white desert, instead of the usual brown, sandy, and dusty desert, and this one was a great deal more pleasant to look at. It is very likely that moving around so much could have influenced my style of quiltmaking because I am somewhat of a shy person and tend to like colors and things that are simple and plain, but I will let you be the judge of that. I came to realize that my mother, her mother, my aunts, and all the others from Gee’s Bend had sewn the foundation, and all I had to do now was thread my own needle and piece a quilt together. She and her siblings frequently worked on her grandfather, Tank Pettway’s, farm growing cotton, corn, peanuts, and sweet potatoes, among other crops. During this stay in El Paso, we visited White Sands, New Mexico. I made a small-squared brown-and-beige quilt and quilted it in a lap loop. Bennett’s husband enlisted in the U.S. Army immediately after graduation, and they spent the next twenty years moving with the military. We traveled to many places in Germany such as Bonn, Frankfurt, Kaiserslautern, Trier, Cologne, the Black Forest, Innsbruck, Munich, Berchtesgaden, Hilter’s house at Obersalzberg, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, just to name a few. In the military, all soldiers are referred to by their last name. She is a prolific artist and culture-bearer, dedicated to propagating her community’s traditions for future generations. From Greg Kucera Gallery, Loretta Pettway Bennett (Gee's Bend), Lazy Gal (2017), Quilted fabric, 82 × 84 in By this time, my mother had completed quilting my “Double Wedding Ring,” and I put the final touch on it by hemming it. Therefore, we had to live and communicate speaking their language, German. I worked at the base commissary (large American grocery store). Loretta Pettway Bennett was born on a farm in Gee’s Bend, Alabama to Qunnie Pettway and Tom O. Pettway. Loretta Pettway Bennett. Jan 4, 2016 - Gees' Bend 5th generation quilter- A beautiful, talented and endearing woman. We didn’t have a water pump of our own, so we carried water from my aunt Lucy T. Pettway’s house. By the time I turned about fifteen, we got running water and paved roads. And even if we did, we were only wasting time and energy. ( Log Out /  Loretta Pettway Bennett (Gees Bend) biography and art for sale. With bold improvisation of traditional quilt motifs, these women have created a style all their own. LIVE TODAY, the # GeesBend Quiltmakers Loretta Pettway Bennett and Mary Margaret Pettway will be in conversation with Raina Lampkins-Fielder, curator of @SoulsGrownDeepFoundation, in a virtual … Truly understanding the depth of Gee’s Bend’s quilts national importance overwhelmed Bennett when she first saw the quilts displayed at the Houston Museum of Fine Art in 2002. In regards to Germany, she noted that “The Germans were not big on having a lot of different colors, especially not on their houses, cars, and clothing, compared to Americans. Because so many people in Gee’s Bend have the name of Pettway, people get middle names that let others know who their fathers are, so nobody marries a close cousin by mistake. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Loretta Pettway Bennett (b. December 29, 1960) was born on a farm in Gee's Bend, Alabama. Our son Brian was now nine years old, and it’s time for me to stop being a stay-at-home mom, so I went back to school and became a medical assistant. I never saw so much snow in all my nineteen years of life. I didn’t work very long at the commissary; the Air Force had a dental assistant training program that I enrolled in and completed, and started working for the air force as a dental assistant. We lived on Bitburg Air Base. My oldest son Brian liked it so much he took it with him back to Austin, Texas. Loretta Pettway Bennett (born December 29, 1960) is an American artist. Recently in The New York Times Gee's Bend Quilts in 2 Shows at Lehman College By MARTHA SCHWENDENER Art Ltd. "artist profile: Loretta Bennett" by Suzanne Beal Open pdf. PLEASE NOTE: The finished size of the Pine Burr Quilt in our collection is 60” wide by 78” long. They raised three boys and eventually settled down again in Gee’s Bend, Alabama after Bennett’s grandmother, Candis Pettway, died in 1998. The climate was very hot and dry. While living in Germany and Texas, Bennett and her family traveled throughout Europe and the American southwest. In April 1997, our third son, Byron (“B.J”), came to us, and we were only a couple of months away before my husband finished his twenty-year military career, and we were preparing for our final and last move back to Huntsville, Alabama. Brian, our oldest son, turned six, and it was time for him to start school. Loretta Bennett, whose quilts can be seen in several museums’ collections around the country, teaches students the traditional Gee’s Bend method. She and her siblings frequently worked on her grandfather, Tank Pettway's, farm growing cotton, corn, peanuts, and sweet potatoes, among other crops. When I was about fourteen years old I pieced my first quilt. Unfortunately, my Grandmother Candis Pettway died the last week in May, so we returned to Gee’s Bend to attend her funeral. Buy art at exclusive members only pricing at the leading online contemporary art marketplace. Pettway also faced physical hardship, walking for miles each day and working in the fields. Therefore, they had to take a German taxi to school every day using the German Autobahn—what we would call “the interstate” here in the United States. Making quilts of any size was really on the back burner now, because in 1995 I became a Jehovah’s Witness, preaching from door to door. My Grandfather Tank Pettway was a very tall, light-skin-tone man. On Tuesday 19 January, 6-7pm GMT, Gee's Bend artists Loretta Pettway Bennett and Mary Margaret Pettway will be in conversation with Raina Lampkins-Fielder, curator of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation in a live virtual talk. Loretta Pettway Bennett: 1 exhibitions from Dec 2020 - Feb 2021, exhibition venues worldwide of artist Loretta Pettway Bennett, Exhibition History, Summary of artist-info.com records, Solo/Group Exhibitions, Visualization, Biography, Artist-Portfolio, Artwork Offers, Artwork Requests, Exhibition Announcements Find the latest shows, biography, and artworks for sale by Loretta Pettway Bennett (Gee's Bend) Burbach was much colder than Blankenheim. After all, I am an offspring of some of the great quiltmakers from Gee’s Bend. We knew when the month of July came it would not be long before we could finally have a summer break. Aunt Lucy was the sister of my father, Tom O. Pettway, Jr. An interesting thing is that Aunt Lucy’s middle name was Tomo. Our field was located in an area called Carson, although my grandfather had two fields, one in Carson and the other one located in a place called Hotel (some people called it Long Bottom). OLD BEAUTY, 2006 Softground spitbite aquatint etching 28 x 24.75 inches Edition of 50. This was a very cold but beautiful country. I can remember that the colors were mostly red, green, blue, and yellow polka dots. Matriarch quilt maker, Mary Lee Bendolph (born 1935) descends from generations of accomplished quilt makers in Gee’s Bend, Alabama. It’s now September 1993, and we moved again, this time back to El Paso, Texas. Change ). Artists born into extreme poverty, they live to see their quilts hailed by a The New York Times art critic as "some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced. At that age we were only allowed to thread the needles for the quilters in my grandmother’s and my mother’s quilting group. The “Pine Burr” quilt was designated the official quilt of the state of Alabama by the legislature on March 11, 1997. Bennett's family home did not receive running water or paved roads until 1975, when she was 15 years old. This uplifting, Emmy-winning PBS film tells the modern-day "Cinderalla" story of the quiltmakers of Gee's Bend, Alabama. Among the pieces are large-scale quilt by Caster Pettway, on sale for $1,660; a tapestry quilt by Doris Pettway Hacketts for $47.40; and a two-layer mask by Loretta Pettway Bennett for $15. I later gave them both away, and sadly to say, they were lost in a house fire. We didn’t bother too hard to try to learn Spanish because we knew our stay in El Paso would be short-lived. Instead, we were bused to Pine Hill Consolidated School, in Pine Hill, Alabama, which was also a two-hour bus ride from Gee’s Bend. The photo above is an aquatint (or print) of a quilt that was made by Loretta Pettway Bennett, who is descended from a long line of quiltmakers in Gee’s Bend, Alabama. It’s 1999 now, and the boys are in school. Therefore, in 2001 I applied for and received a fellowship grant from the Alabama State Archive Council on the Arts for my mother to teach me the fine art and every small detail of quilting. My mother Qunnie Pettway’s first paying job was working at the Freedom Quilting Bee. During this time, the South and Wilcox County were introduced to integration and desegregation, and the school in Gee’s Bend was closed down. During the winter months, we helped my mother and grandmother with their quilts, and they would let us practice on some of them, but tacking quilts was now the new thing and we could tack several quilts in a day. There my eyes were opened, and it touched me in a way as to question myself: Can I make a quilt that someday might hang on the wall of a museum? But in the springtime things were different. To pick a hundred pounds of cotton a day was really hard for me because I was so small, but I am sure it was no problem for my grandfather, Tank Pettway, because he was a big, tall man. Loretta Pettway Bennett was first introduced to quilting at age six; her mother, Qunnie Pettway, worked for the Freedom Quilting Bee. LAZY GAL, 2006 Softground spitbite aquatint and hardground 39.5 x 33 inches Edition of 50 View prints by Quilters of Gee's Bend I got to see another side of Germany, as many houses were decorated with flower boxes of red geraniums and pansies sitting on the window ledges, with white and black-trimmed houses in the background. She endured a thirty-year marriage to an abusive husband, with whom she had seven children. ( Log Out /  The flowers were bright red, blue, green, and pink. In order to arrive at school on time, we would catch the bus about 6 AM every day. My mother helped me to complete our project. Cucumbers were the “new cotton,” but thank God, the season for cucumber picking was very short, from late May to the first week in July. In 2006 her quilts "Roman Stripes" variation and Medallion appeared on two US Postal service stamps as part of a series commemorating Gee's bend quilters. We only lived in Decatur for one year. There I bought American cloth and other sewing materials, so I tried my hand again at piecing quilts. Gee’s Bend is a close-knit Black community on the Alabama river that is home to multiple generations of Black women who are artists and community builders. Denim. Bennett was introduced to the quilting tradition, when she was five or six years old, although “At that age we were only allowed to thread the needles for the quilters in my grandmother’s and my mother’s quilting group.” Every summer, her mother and aunts would train more sewing into her skill set, little by little. In November of the same year I joined him in Germany, and this was a real culture shock. In June 1989, we moved back to Germany again, this time to Bitburg, Germany. Loretta’s mother, Qunnie Pettway (1943-2010), a quilter from the now-famous Gee’s Bend group, had taught her how to make the Pine Burr.
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