Quilts for Sale
Highly sought after Gee's Bend quilts made by Loretta Pettway Bennett
September 2019
For those of you with a keen artistic eye and a desire to own a quilt made by one of the most creative of the Gee's Bend quiltmakers working today I am offering this group of quilts for your consideration. I have known Loretta since the very beginning of the exploding interest in Gee's Bend quilts and I am thrilled that she is letting me have this group of quilts to offer to you.
Loretta Pettway Bennett (b. December 29, 1960) was born on a farm in Gee's Bend, Alabama. She and her siblings frequently worked on her grandfather, Tank Pettway's, farm growing cotton, corn, peanuts, and sweet potatoes, among other crops. Bennett's family home did not receive running water or paved roads until 1975, when she was 15 years old. Gee's Bend schools went through desegregation in Bennett's seventh grade year, and were shut down shortly thereafter. In order to continue her education, Bennett was required to take a crowded school bus two hours each morning and night to reach schools in neighboring counties.
Bennett graduated and married her high school sweetheart, Lovett "Bennett" Bennett. Her husband enlisted in the U.S. Army immediately after graduation, and they spent the next twenty years moving with the military. They raised three boys and eventually settled down again in Gee's Bend, Alabama. 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." Throughout her travels in Europe and the American Southwest, Bennett always marveled at each culture's distinct use of color. Some of her pieces, such as her early 2000's, duo-tone blocks and strips works, remind the viewer of Bauhaus ways of color usage, or the organization of Piet Mondrien. 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.
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. 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 ancestors' 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. She is a prolific artist and culture-bearer, dedicated to propagating her community's traditions for future generations. Find out more about Loretta Pettway Bennett here.
Quilts in this Collection:
DNA
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born 1960, made approximately 2006, cotton, red, black and small piece of yellow, 66" x 60"
Available $10,000
Order...
Denim Pants Legs
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born 1960, made approximately 2004, cotton denim, denim blue, 62" x 83"
Available $13,000 Order...
Sweeps
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born 1960, made approximately 2003, cotton, green and white, 77" x 65"
Available $8,500 Order...
Untitled
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born 1960, made approximately 2008, cotton, red and black, 66" x 56"
Available $10,500 Order...
SF
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born 1960, made approximately 2006, corduroy, pink, green, yellow, grey and dark blue, 73" x 56"
Available $12,000 Order...
Medallion
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born 1960, made approximately 2006, cotton and twill, pink, green, black and white, 77" x 65"
Available $12,500 Order...
Mommy Qunnie
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born 1960, made approximately 2006, cotton and twill, pink, green, orange and brown, 76" x 61"
Available $10,500 Order...
Alligator Eyes
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born 1960, made approximately 2005, polyester and double knit, red, green and brown, 62" x 61"
Available $9,500 Order...
Denim Strips
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born1960, made approximately 2004, denim, denim blue, 86" x 69"
Available $12,800 Order...
15 Missing Pockets
Made by Loretta P. Bennett, born 1960, made approximately 2008, denim, denim blue, 93" x 78"
Available $14,000 Order...
