Setting a Different Pattern : African American Quilts at Bowers Display Creative Improvisations

Build the quilt. Play the fabric. Shade the count.

“Who’d a Thought It,” which opened Sunday at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, examines “Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking.” The genre’s distinctive lexicon reflects that aspect, and the exhibition itself makes the case--particularly to those who only know standard American quilt-making traditions--that irregularities are anything but mistakes.

“It’s nothin’ about makin’ it a little different,” quilt maker Odessa Doby of Arkansas is quoted as saying in the catalog essay. “It’s still the same pattern. You just added somethin’ of your own to it.”

That somethin’ of Doby’s own is the improvisatory element. If there are mistakes, all the better: They provide more fodder for creativity.

To illustrate how potential disasters are routinely integrated into the artistic process, guest curator Eli Leon cited an example from a 1940s book about West Africa, in which a goat stepped in a bowl of starching paste, then walked across a cloth-art work in progress.

“The artist calmly picked up a wooden comb and swirled it through the splotches in such a way as to make an attractive design, making use of incidentals and accidentals, accidentals in this case,” Leon recounted by phone from his home in Oakland.

“But the comb was then also used when there was no problem to start out with--it would be run through a blob of starch just as if there had been an accident. . . . Creative ideas often come from accidentals. In quilts, the same kind of thing happens all the time. If you’re running out of fabric, you’ve got to deal with it.”

Leon, 60, has always had a penchant for thrown-away objects. He’s even collected used light bulbs and burned matches. Because these quilts are made from scraps, his interest grew naturally. He has collected the quilts for 15 years, and the 27 quilts on display at the Bowers are from his collection.

“I live in a black-majority city, Oakland,” he said, “and I kept coming upon these astonishing African American quilts that didn’t fit into the standard tradition of American quilt making as I knew it. I started studying African textiles.

“Now I both collect and document them. If somebody wants to sell a quilt, I’ll buy it. If not, I’ll photograph it. But I like to lead as a scholar rather than as a collector.” Use of visual rhythms is a fundamental component unifying the quilts. “Shading the count” is an expression derived from jazz dancing having to do with syncopation, yet Leon believes jazz has a negligible influence on African American quilt makers.

“Improvisation is pervasive in the African American culture,” Leon said. “Jazz is an urban male-dominated ultra-sophisticated form. Gospel and blues show the same kinds of variations, and quilters are far more likely to listen to gospel.”

Leon uses a story in his show essay (first mounted at the San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum in 1987) to point up differences in standard and “Afro-traditional” quilt-making aesthetics.

He showed a group of women an example of a 1930s “Double Wedding Ring” quilt, “a pristine expression of an archetype of Anglo-American femininity. The ladies loved it, and a chorus of ‘ain’ that nice’ in hushed, cooing tones circled the room.”

He realized that it would be a hard act to follow, but he spread out Emma Hall’s worn and roughly crafted 1940 “Double Wedding Ring” quilt from Arkansas--and was thunderstruck by the reaction:

“These five stately women, a moment before so sweet and serene, started to hoot and stomp until the house shook. The room became a stadium, the fans gone wild. It was an exhilarating experience. . . .

“Both quilts were fully appreciated in the manner that they were designed to be,” he said. “The one was approached gingerly; not touched. Like a fairy tale princess, it radiated an aura of dreamlike grace and elegance, of fragile perfection. It evoked stirring images of bridal attire and lacy wedding cakes.

“The other, alive and kicking, invites audience participation. Rather than the consummate expression of an archetypic ideal, it is somethin’ new and somethin’ different. Its vital force elicits a vital response.”

* What: “Who’d a Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking.”

* When: Open Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday until 9 p.m. Through May 12.

* Where: Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana.

* Whereabouts: Exit the Santa Ana (5) Freeway at 17th Street and go west. Turn right onto Main Street.

* Wherewithal: Adults, $4.50; students and seniors, $3; children 5-12, $1.50; under 5, free.

* Where to call: (714) 567-3600.