Our latest visitors from MOMA and our conversation with the curator of Costumes and Textiles reminded me of an exhibition that I stumbled upon virtually this spring.

Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts was an exhibition sponsored by the American Folk Art Museum that dramatically displayed a private collection of 650 quilts at the Park Avenue Armory.

An article about the exhibition in Metropolis Magazine describes the arresting design, which uses the quilts as architectural elements in themselves. It also explores the use of mobile devices to bring the visitors closer to the quilts, many of which are suspended too high for easy viewing. While they provide a close-viewing experience, the apps did not offer much information at all about the quilts - the stated reason being that apparently the collector did not gather that data when she collected the pieces.


"The concept for the exhibit grew in part from Mrs. Rose’s wish to see her collection at once (for years she kept her quilts folded in a closet, never really seeing what she had). Curators Stacy Hollander and Liz Warren also wanted to avoid typical museum categorizations (grouping quilts by pattern, time period, or geographic origin) in favor of making a visually compelling composition."

Did anybody visit this show? What are your thoughts about the decision to create a composition or spectacle with the pieces. Does it amplify the pieces, or detract from their singularity?