Utilitarian art: The quilts of GeeÕs Bend have been compared to abstract modernist paintings.

Every studio art major who ever thought of sewing old, beat-up jeans into a quilt for his or her dorm room should know that it has been done. Since July 27, the Cleveland Museum of Art has exhibited 65 quilts from the small, impoverished town of Gee’s Bend, Ala., where four generations of women cut up tattered paisley dresses, kitchen rags and their husbands’ old workpants to sew into unique works of art.

The quilts of Gee’s Bend date back through the mid-1920s and often feature large blocks of color, a motif frequently associated with African-American quilting. Another common design is long strips of fabric sewn together. The quilters’ exploration of color and line has drawn comparisons between the quilts and abstract, modernist paintings.

One reason the quilts of Gee’s Bend are unique is that most of the women who created them chose not to use traditional patterns even though they had access to them. Most quilters did not want to be confined by others’ designs. Instead, they experimented, working by trial and error. If a quilter sewed a piece on and it didn’t look good, she took it out.

The exhibit includes work from more than 40 quilters, each with her own unique style. Women in Gee’s Bend taught their daughters and granddaughters to quilt, encouraging younger generations not to work from patterns but to design their own.

The placards accompanying each quilt include a photograph of the quilter and a quote. “I wanted the quilters’ voice to come through in the exhibit. I didn’t want it to be about my interpretation, but rather about theirs,” said curator Louise Mackie.

Beyond their aesthetic appeal and formal designs, the quilts of Gee’s Bend are also exceptional because of where they come from. Gee’s Bend is a town of 1,000 people, isolated on a peninsula between three rivers in southwest Alabama. The inhabitants are descendants of slaves who worked at the Pettway plantation. Because of their geographic isolation, the quilters’ styles developed with little influence from the outside world and for decades did not proliferate beyond the bounds of the town.

The quilters in Gee’s Bend have experienced extreme poverty. On the floor below the quilts is a related exhibit entitled Memory Quilt: Photographs of Gee’s Bend by Arthur Rothstein and Marion Post Walcott. Rothstein and Walcott were documentary photographers for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression and their photographs prompted Congress to send economic aid to Gee’s Bend in the form of low-interest loans.

The quotes on the placards and supplemental video interviews declare an overwhelming consensus on the impetus behind this art: these women made quilts out of necessity. The front wall of the exhibit is collaged with newspapers, a curatorial choice that makes sense only after visitors see the video in which the quilters describe how they covered the interior walls of their homes with newspapers to keep out the cold.

The quilts sewn, the next step for the women was to make sure every bed had a quilt. Because of their impoverished circumstances, they had to recycle fabric for the quilts, cutting squares and strips out of old clothing. “Many women said they wanted to make ‘pretty’ quilts... but they had no pretty pieces,” said Mackie, “so they did the best they could. Maybe it’s that attitude that makes them exceptional — ‘I’m going to do the best that I can with what I have.’”

Visitors get to know the quilters intimately throughout the exhibit. They see their pictures and listen to stories about their daily lives in Gee’s Bend. In one room, visitors are invited to sit down and quilt.

It is an uplifting experience to see beautiful, thought-provoking works of art come out of this economically destitute community. Many art historians, including Mackie, agree that the quilts should be regarded foremost as works of art, even though they serve a utilitarian purpose. The quilters of Gee’s Bend may have been bound by necessity, but their artistic expressions were never restricted by any vision but their own.

Cleveland Museum of Art. The Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibit closes on Sept. 12. On Sept. 11 admission is free.