THE ART OF COMFORT:
Antique Quilts and Bed Coverings
from the Pilgrim/Roy Collection
April 23 - August 13, 2006

Forty exquisite American quilts and comforters from the collection of Gerald E. Roy and the late Paul Pilgrim will come to the University of Kentucky Art Museum in The Art of Comfort. Located in New Hampshire, the Pilgrim/Roy collection is made up of over 2500 quilts, comforters, sewing tools, and antique fabrics. Selections from the collection have been exhibited at the Museum of the American Quilters’ Society in Paducah, Kentucky and in museums in Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Japan. The focus of the collection, which began in the late 1960s, has always been to acquire pieces that revealed the quilter’s individual artistic expression. Believing that age, materials, and craftsmanship were secondary to artists’ abilities to engage the imagination, Roy and Pilgrim searched for quilts that contained outstanding elements of design and color. When selecting quilts for this exhibition, Roy noted that “these quilts reflect an age when perhaps the maker’s only means of personal expression was needle, thread, and pieces of leftover materials. Whatever the inspiration, either by design or utility, the quilts connect the viewer with the past and the present without uttering a word, as only a work of art can do.”

The quilts and comforters featured in The Art of Comfort are made from traditional materials, including cotton and wool, in traditional patterns such as Double Wedding Ring, Star of Bethlehem, and Birds in the Air. Ranging in date from the 1880s to the 1940s, the quilts were made in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, North Carolina, and New England.

The Art of Comfort opens April 23, 2006. Quilt-related educational activities, lectures and classes will be announced at a later date. A color catalogue with an essay by Gerald Roy will be available in the Museum’s shop during the exhibition.

 

Quilt pictured above: Lone Star With Stars All Around Quilt, 75 x 75”, Wool, Pennsylvania, ca. 1910