PROVOCATIVE PARALLELS: THE MODERN ART OF ANTIQUE QUILTS

American Quilts from the Terasaki Collection
June 12 - August 26, 2012

Quilt with Harvest Sun Pattern, American, nineteenth or early twentieth century, cotton, pieced. Collection of Etsuko Terasaki. Photo credit: David O. Brown, courtesy of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University.

This exhibition features twenty-one American quilts from the private collection of Etsuko Terasaki, a former professor of Japanese literature and theatre at Cornell University, whose fascination with color and design dates back to her childhood in Japan. Nearly forty years ago, Terasaki saw her first American quilt and soon after became an avid collector. With an eye for quality in design and craftsmanship, she built a stellar collection that at one time included nearly 300 quilts. The exhibition includes highlights from that collection, featuring pieced quilts made in America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sophisticated in design, these quilts testify to the timeless human impulse to create order and beauty in our surroundings, with whatever resources available, for utility and for pure visual pleasure.

The exhibition was organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. The exhibition was curated by Cathy Rosa Klimaszewski, Associate Director for Programs / Harriett Ames Charitable Trust Curator of Education.

WALKING DOWN THE AISLE? DO IT ON AN ANTIQUE RUNNER!

When that groom and groom, or bride and bride, or even (gasp!) that bride and groom walk down the aisle in New York State from July 24 on, make their event even more memorable  by covering the aisle with an antique hooked rug or rag carpet runner. It will be something the couple can use in their home after the ceremony to cherish as a reminder of their long-anticipated day.

I recommend using a runner from the 19^th or early 20^th century instead of a plain old white rug. Make your choice from our large well edited inventory of loom-woven rag carpet in plaids, or with vertical stripes, or with all- over striations;  traditional hooked rugs in runner lengths with either geometric, floral or pictorial designs, or braided or crocheted runners. 

Choose something that will delight the happy couple, and will also intrigue the wedding guests. Runners vary in width from about 1 ½’ wide up to 4' wide, and vary in length from 8' on up to some rag carpet rolls that run 45' long; later on, those can be cut into shorter strips and sewn together to make a room size carpet.

The real beauty of antique and vintage rag carpet and hooked rugs has never been accurately copied because in these originals is a color variegation over time from natural materials. Their incomparable visual effects have a liveliness and depth to cherish always.