Loretta Pettway Bennett (American, b. 1960)

Flow Plans, 2012

Quilted cotton
89 x 76 in.; 98 x 81 in. framed

Loretta Pettway Bennett was born and raised in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, a small rural Black community southwest of Selma. Many of the residents, including Pettway Bennett, can trace their ancestry back to the Pettway Plantation where, after the Civil War, formerly enslaved individuals and families took the plantation’s name and became tenant farmers. Gee’s Bend quilting techniques date to the mid-19th century and have been passed down through at least six generations of women. Their designs are influenced, in part, by Native American and African textile traditions.

By recycling used clothing, Pettway Bennett preserves personal memories in works that demonstrate artistic ingenuity and resourcefulness. Abstract, geometric forms are influenced by the architectural details and colors of the southern landscape and share the formal qualities of 20th-century American modernist art. Several art exhibitions, documentaries, and books exist on the Gee’s Bend community of quilters and their contributions to the history of American art. The quilts have been exhibited in museums including, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Tate Modern, London; The Royal Academy of Arts, London, among many others.

More information on Gee’s Bend can be found here:

https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/exhibition/quilts-gees-bend

https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/publication/gees-bend-architecture-quilt