Over the past two decades, Gee鈥檚 Bend quilts have captured the public鈥檚 imagination with their kaleidoscopic colors and their daring geometric patterns. The groundbreaking art practice was cultivated by direct descendants of slaves in rural Alabama who have faced oppression, geographic isolation and intense material constraints.
As of this year, their improvisational art has also come to embody a very modern question: What happens when distinctive cultural tradition collides with corporate America?
Enter Target. The retailer launched a limited-edition collection based on the quilters' designs for Black History Month this year. Consumer appetites proved to be high as many stores around the country sold out of the checkered sweaters, water bottles and faux-quilted blankets.
鈥淲e鈥檙e actually in a quilt revival right now, like in real time,鈥� says Sharbreon Plummer, an artist and scholar. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e so popularized, and Target knew that. It created the biggest buzz when it came out.鈥� Indeed, there has been a resurgence of interest among Gen Z and millennials in conscious consumption and the homemade 鈥� with , baking bread, DIY bracelets 鈥� but both are at odds with the realities of fast fashion.
The Target designs were 鈥渋nspired by鈥� five Gee's Bend quilters who reaped limited financial benefits from the collection鈥檚 success. They received a flat rate for their contributions rather than pay proportionate to Target鈥檚 sales. A spokesperson for Target wouldn鈥檛 share sales numbers from the collection but confirmed that it indeed sold out in many stores.
Unlike the pay structure of the Freedom Quilting Bee of the 1960s 鈥� an artist-run collective that disbursed payment equitably to Gee's Bend quilters, who were salaried and could set up Social Security benefits 鈥� one-off partnerships with companies like Target benefit only a small number of people, in this case five women from two families.
The maxim 鈥渞epresentation matters鈥� is not new, but it's gaining wider traction. Still, when visibility for some doesn't translate into meaningful change for a marginalized community as a whole, how is that reconciled?
A HISTORY OF OUTSIDERS
鈥滶very stage of the finances has been problematic,鈥� says Patricia Turner, a retired professor in World Arts and Culture and African American Studies at UCLA who traced the commodification of Gee's Bend quilts back to the white collector Bill Arnett in the 1990s. 鈥淚鈥檓 really bothered by Target's in-house designer manipulating the look of things to make it more palatable for their audience," she says of the altered color palettes and patterns.
Target spokesperson Brian Harper-Tibaldo said that quilters had the opportunity to provide input on multiple occasions throughout the process.
鈥淲e worked with five quilters from The Quilters of Gee鈥檚 Bend on a variety of limited-time only items," he wrote in an emailed statement. 鈥淎s is standard with limited-time collections at Target, each quilter was paid a discussed and agreed upon fee for their services. As outlined in our contracts, Target had the right to make final design decisions, however, with the goal of honoring their storied heritage, the process was highly collaborative.鈥�
While thumbnail-size photos of the makers appeared on some marketing materials and the text 鈥淕ee's Bend鈥� was printed on clothing tags, the company's engagement with the quilters was limited. As soon as ended, the quilters' names and images were scrubbed from the retailer's site.
Target has pledged to spend on Black-owned businesses by 2025.
The situation today mirrors that of the 1990s, when some quilters enjoyed newfound visibility, others were disinterested and still others felt taken advantage of. (In 2007, several quilters brought against the Arnett family, but all cases were settled out of court and little is known about the suits because of nondisclosure agreements.)
The profit-oriented approach that emerged, which disrupted the Quilting Bee's price-sharing structure, created 鈥渞eal rifts and disharmony within the community,鈥� Turner explains, over engaging with collectors, art institutions and commercial enterprises. 鈥淭o have those bonds disrupted over the commercialization of their art form, I think, is sad.鈥�
REPRODUCING ART OUT OF CONTEXT
Quilts are made to mark major milestones and are gifted to celebrate a new baby or a marriage, or to honor someone鈥檚 loss. Repurposing fabric 鈥� from tattered blankets, frayed rags, stained clothes 鈥� is a central ethos of the community鈥檚 quilting practice, which resists commodification. But the Target collection was mass-produced from new fabrics in factories in China and elsewhere overseas.
The older generations of Gee's Bend quilters are known for one-of-a-kind designs with clashing colors and irregular, wavy lines 鈥� visual effects borne of their material constraints. Most worked at night in houses without electricity and didn't have basic tools like scissors, let alone access to fabric stores. , who has sold her quilts on for $100 to $8,000, has characterized having scissors and access to more fabrics now as a paradox of 鈥渁dvantage and a disadvantage.鈥�
Many third- and fourth-generation artists returned to quilting as adults for a creative and therapeutic outlet, as well as a tether to their roots. After her mom died in 2010, quilter revisited the practice and found peace in completing her mother鈥檚 unfinished quilts. 鈥淎s I鈥檓 making this stitch, I can just see her hand, stitching. It鈥檚 like, we鈥檙e there together,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t's a little bit of her, a little bit of me.鈥�
is a third-generation Gee鈥檚 Bend quilter whose was a sharecropper and whose bold, rhythmic quilts are now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art鈥檚 permanent collection. For the Target collection, she received a flat fee rather than a rate proportional to sales.
鈥淚 was kind of concerned in the beginning鈥� about how quilts would be altered to fit with the collection, Pettway Thibodeaux says. 鈥淏ut then again when I saw the collection, I felt different.鈥�
Claudia Pettway Charley, a Gee鈥檚 Bend quilter and a community manager at Nest, a nonprofit, said in an emailed statement that the collaboration was 鈥渁 great way to make our designs accessible鈥� to a wide audience.
鈥淲e had no idea how large this campaign would be and what it would mean to our community,鈥� she said.
LOOKING FOR ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION
Because job opportunities are so limited in Gee's Bend, many fourth-generation quilters have left the area to take jobs as teachers, day care workers, home health aides, and to serve in the military.
鈥淲e, as the next generation, we was more dreamers,鈥� Pettway-West says.
National recognition has certainly brought some positive change. But more visibility 鈥� from museum exhibitions, academic research, a U.S. Postal Service 鈥� hasn't necessarily translated into economic gains. After all, the average annual income in Boykin, Alabama, is still far below the poverty rate at about $12,000, .
鈥淭his is a community that still, to this day, really needs recognition, still needs economic revitalization," says Lauren Cross, Gail-Oxford associate curator of American decorative arts at The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens. "And so any economic opportunities that, you know, funnel back to them, I support."
Target鈥檚 line in particular, though, is disconnected from the group鈥檚 origins and handmade practice, she says. It's a problem that distills the very challenge at hand when something handcrafted and linked to deep tradition goes national and corporate.
鈥淥n one hand you want to preserve the stories and that sense of authenticity," Cross says.
"And on the other hand," she asks, 鈥渉ow do you reach a broader audience?鈥�
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This story was first published on May. 11, 2024. It was updated on Jul. 23, 2024 to correct the name of The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens.
Anna Furman, The Associated Press
