Untitled (Railroad Crossing Variation)

Unidentified (American), Untitled (Railroad Crossing Variation), 1930s - 1940s, wool, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Corrine Riley and museum purchase through the Barbara Coffey Quilt Endowment and the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2016.5.28
Copied Unidentified (American), Untitled (Railroad Crossing Variation), 1930s - 1940s, wool, 79 × 65 12 in. (200.7 × 166.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Corrine Riley and museum purchase through the Barbara Coffey Quilt Endowment and the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2016.5.28
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Untitled (Railroad Crossing Variation)
Artist
Unidentified (American)
Date
1930s - 1940s
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
79 × 65 12 in. (200.7 × 166.4 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Corrine Riley and museum purchase through the Barbara Coffey Quilt Endowment and the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description
wool
Classifications
Object Number
2016.5.28

Artwork Description

Improvisational quilts, or those with free-form patterns, are an old and ongoing tradition in African American quilting. They represent a practical need for warmth, but, in the early and mid-twentieth century, they also provided a rare splash of color in drab dwellings. These quilts assert personal style and a need to express love through beauty, and reveal "home-making" as a defiant, political act by people whose lives beyond the home were marked by oppression. The maker's identity has often been lost, yet the material and aesthetic compositions depart radically from European American quilt patterns and color palettes. African American quilters improvised with available, worn, and patched-together materials to create great beauty from meager means.