Allure of Flowers Exhibition Guide for Docents *Addendum 3/3/14
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Allure of Flowers Exhibition Guide for Docents *Addendum 3/3/14 Nick Cave. American, 1959- Soundsuit 2007 Fabricated, beaded, and sequined body suit, metal armature, metal Victorian flowers Museum Purchase: Founders’ Circle Annual Cause. 2009.19.1A-OOOOO Nick Cave’s Soundsuit gives human form to the bouquet. Colorful crocheted and beaded blooms cover the surface of a bodysuit, which is topped by a metal armature resembling a Victorian chandelier, similarly embellished with metal roses, tulips, and other flowers. Recycled from existing garments, their styles range from naturalistic to stylized 1960s Pop Art. The Soundsuits are so named because Cave created them as costumes to wear in dance performances, in which movement would produce rattling and other sounds. Lyle Family. American, 19th century Broderie Perse Crib Quilt circa 1830 Hand-appliquéd, quilted, and stitched cotton Gift of Fleur and Charles Bresler. 2001.38.3 The Lyle Family quilt features a bouquet and floral sprays of chintz, or printed cotton, cut out of their original fabric and appliquéd on a white ground. This style was known as broderie perse (Persian embroidery), which the quilts were thought to resemble, although they are appliquéd rather than embroidered. Chintz fabrics were first made in India and imported to Europe in the 1600s for use on furnishings. Later they were imitated by French and English manufacturers, and by the eighteenth century were being produced in America. In the early nineteenth century, quilts with cut-out chintz were so popular that textile factories made it specifically for use by quilters. Phebe Warner Quilt circa 1930s Unknown American Maker, 20th century Hand-appliquéd, quilted, and embroidered cotton and satin Gift of Fleur and Charles Bresler. 2001.38.16 A bouquet of stylized blossoms fills the central vase of the Phebe Warner Quilt, and is echoed in its border. Although made in the 1930s, the quilt takes its composition, and therefore its name, from a quilt made by Sarah Warner Williams of New York in 1803 for her cousin Phebe Warner. This earlier quilt is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the 1930s maker may have seen it exhibited there or in a nationally-exhibited illustration created in 1939. Both quilts feature vases of flowers, flanked by trees, birds, and people, but each is rendered in the respective maker’s own style. Further, the cheerful colors and patterns of the 1930s fabrics update the 1803 design for the Depression era, when quilt-making was both practical and an amusing diversion. .