Exhibition, Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond
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About the artists and art featured in the The name “Gee's Bend” both expresses the exhibition, Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee’s geographical feature that defines this Bend Quilts, and Beyond community—a hairpin curve in the Alabama River that envelops a spit of Wilcox County— Written by Stephanie Burak and connotes the denial of personal identity that was at the heart of African American Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond bondage: Joseph Gee was the first white settler explores a dialogue of aesthetic influence and the founder of the cotton plantation in among four Alabama artists, focusing on the the “bend” that bears his name. Later, the creative vision of master Gee’s Bend plantation became the property of Mark quiltmaker Mary Lee Bendolph. She—along Pettway, who superimposed his name on Gee’s with numerous other Gee's Bend quiltmakers, slaves and brought in one hundred or so of his including many of her relatives—participates own. Today, Pettway remains by far the most in a tradition of African American quiltmaking common surname in Gee’s Bend. that stretches back into the nineteenth century. The genre of black Names weren't the only quiltmaking is likewise nested identifiers taken from enslaved within a broader set of ancestors: their languages, vernacular cultural practices religions, possessions, and that involve rituals of recycling anything else that would give a and reuse, ancestor veneration, people spiritual strength, hope, and the maintenance of and cultural cohesion were philosophical and religious prohibited. Plantation slaves far beliefs, all embodied in arts outnumbered their white ranging from painting and counterparts, but without these sculpture to utilitarian crafts identifiers to remind them of and the built landscape. who they were and where they Bendolph’s aesthetic, a mix of came from, they were community inheritances and considered more vulnerable to her irreducible personal flair, white hegemony. A primary has recently encountered a new Mary Lee Bendolph (b. 1935). Blocks‐and‐ means these enslaved people set of influences from her strips. 2002. Cotton, wool, and corduroy. developed to retain and pass contacts and friendships with a 98 X 86 in. down personal and communal number of other African identity was through finding American artists working in expressive opportunities in acts different genres. The of necessity. exhibition introduces a new chapter in the history of Gee’s Bend quilts, personified by African slaves and their descendants were this postmodern quiltmaker, who has become forced to adopt Christianity as their religion, aware of her place within overlapping, which is why the songs they sang in the fields dynamic, and syncretistic traditions. referenced the Bible. However, through their subversive choice of stories like Moses’ freeing Like most people in Gee's Bend, Alabama, of the Hebrew slaves, they openly yet Mary Lee Bendolph descends from slaves who indirectly communicated their sorrows and labored on the local cotton plantations. hopes, and were able to express some sense of Following the Civil War and Emancipation, identity. many ancestors of current-day Gee's Benders stayed on the land and became tenant farmers. 1 This was a form of spiritual rebellion that had Since African American vernacular art can be to remain in disguise; exposing the truth was as humble as a bottle hanging from a tree tantamount to a death sentence: even after the branch, or as quietly monumental as tree Civil Rights movement a black branches leaned against the person in the South who expressed trunk, to many onlookers these ideas with political overtones or assemblages are cryptic, at critical social commentary was a best. To many other observers, target for racially motivated hate they are unrecognizable as crimes. This was true of all significant aesthetic expression. perceivable expression, including Invisibility or indirectness of art. meaning, which permeated the slave spirituals, lives on in the Thornton Dial, from Birmingham, forms and techniques of many artist and close friend of Mary visual artists within the black Lee's, used to bury the art that he community. made for fear that white people might see it. Now he is seen as one One becomes immersed in of the greatest artists of this Gee’s Bend’s mixture of faith, African American tradition. His music, and rituals of daily paintings (which are really painted, existence as one listens to multi-media high-reliefs) and Mary Lee Bendolph and her sculptures, which have been shown choir at Ye Shall Know the in major national museums, Lonnie Holley (b. 1950). Early Truth Baptist Church thank Beginner. 1994. Chair and jump ropes. incorporate objects he found and 34 1/2 X 20 X 21 in. Jesus for raising them out of salvaged for the purpose of hard times; as she and fellow making art. Lonnie B. Holley, also quilters hum praises while an artist and friend of the Gee's Bend quilting; or as Gee's Bend quiltmakers sing quiltmakers, creates sophisticated and with the spirit and vivacity of their enslaved intellectual art made of abandoned objects and ancestors at art exhibition openings and materials. The work of both artists are highly concerts performed around the country. The communicative, carefully designed and soulful energy of their ancestors' spirituals calculated assemblages that have deep meaning imbue these songs of praise. It is commonly while utilizing artistic known that African vocabularies not easily American song also recognized or understood led to the development by people from outside the of other forms of artists’ cultural group. The music with its first two men are often labeled makeshift instruments “outsider artists”—meaning being humble tools of that their art is made in a labor: washtubs and social, historical, and broom handles—and cultural vacuum—but are eventually evolving actually part of an artistic into the pride of legacy that has survived for American music, rock centuries in forms such as ’n’ roll. However, the “yard shows,” root Thornton Dial (b. 1928). Creation Story. 2003. Clothing, carpet, story of African sculptures, assemblages, steel, enamel, spray paint, and Splash Zone on canvas on American music has and, of course, quiltmaking. wood. 67 X 91 X 5 in. been widely told. The 2 Gee’s Benders’ other fundamental means of attending school only during agricultural off- expressing themselves and their heritage seasons. Even Mary Lee's daughter-in-law through acts of necessity was in their Louisiana Pettway Bendolph recalls such a quiltmaking. This story is still emerging into childhood, and she was not born until 1960. public awareness. Electricity, central heating, indoor plumbing, television, washing machines, and other As virtually every elderly Gee's Bend amenities common to most American quiltmaker says, they started quilting when households did not arrive until recent decades, they were between the ages of and even today not everyone in nine and twelve, and were the Bend has all of these taught by their mothers or other amenities. elder female relatives. Mary Lee Bendolph learned to quilt when In Louisiana Pettway Bendolph's she was twelve from her youth, only two locals owned mother, Aolar Mosely; later cars, which explains why the Mary Lee taught her daughter, sudden revocation of the ferry Essie B. Pettway, when Essie service to Camden, the county was approximately twelve. Now seat, during the Civil Rights Essie is also an acclaimed artist, movement was such a blow— whose quilts are included in all the ferry had reduced to a the major Gee’s Bend quilt handful of miles the eighty-mile exhibitions. roundtrip expedition overland to the voter registration site in Camden. Today, Quiltmaking was an important skill for young the quilters have cars and can access resources women to learn in preparation for like Wal-Mart for new fabrics of their choice. motherhood and in order to provide warmth However, some of the artists, including Mary and comfort to their families. Before the Lee, only like to quilt with used clothes. As she 1940s, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt's states, “Old clothes carry something with New Deal relief program provided Gee's them. You can feel the presence of the person Bend with new “Roosevelt houses,” many of who used to wear them. It has a spirit in the homes in Gee's Bend were constructed of them.”i She finds beauty in recycling discarded wood planks and logs sealed with mud. The things and wants that beauty to be seen and gaps in the walls and ceilings enjoyed by others. Her approach were covered by newspapers to teaches the value of discarded keep the wind and rain out. things and how a resourceful Roosevelt's relief efforts also person can surround herself with allowed Gee's Bend residents to beauty by giving unique purpose purchase the land at low interest to the possessions she already rates, which during the Great has. Depression and after was a godsend to a community By embracing and re-purposing deemed one of most cast-off things to create items of impoverished in the United beauty, Mary Lee Bendolph, like States. Despite this “leg up,” other African American artists, things were by no means easy enacts a spiritual triumph over for the Benders: from the age of Essie B. Pettway (b. 1956). the hardships of life and the twelve, Mary Lee and her peers Two‐sided quilt: Blocks [top] and "One collective history of her would work in the fields, patch" [bottom]. 1973. Cotton, community and culture. Her polyester knit, denim. 88 X 80 in 3 people, metaphorized in those discarded cannot be said to constitute a cultural materials, have been cast off by the more aesthetic—African American experiences and dominant society, but find expressive strategies are too diverse redeeming beauty and value in for that—they remain in wide themselves and make those practice, especially within the qualities visible to anyone willing to African American South, and are see them.