Pearlie Kennedy Pettway

Pearlie Kennedy Pettway
Born1920
Boykin, Alabama, U.S.
Died1982
NationalityAmerican
Known forQuilting
Notable work"Bars" Work-Clothes Quilt (ca. 1950), Triangles Creating Squares-Within-Squares Motif (ca. 1960)
MovementGee's Bend Collecive

Pearlie Kennedy Pettway (1920–1982) was an American quilter. She was among the quilters of Gee's Bend. Her works are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Pearlie Kennedy was born in Boykin, Alabama (Gee's Bend) in 1920.[1] She had a brother, Herman Kennedy.[2] She married Horace Pettway, who was the brother of her brother's wife, Mary Elizabeth Pettway.[2]

Pettway created her Triangles quilt around 1960.[3] The quilt, also known as Triangles Creating Squares-within-Squares (Housetop) Motif, is made from cotton sacking material.[4] It is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[1] a gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation in 2014.[5] Once clothing was no longer able to be mended, Pettway would use the material from coverall pants, dresses, and skirts to create quilts.[2] Her quilt Bars, made c. 1950, was crafted using cotton and denim work-clothes.[6] According to her daughter Florida Irby, Pettway also sewed clothing using 25 lb. flour sacks and cloth that she acquired in Camden, using the leftover fabric to make quilts.[2]

Pettway died in 1982 in Boykin.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b "Triangles quilt, ca. 1960, Pearlie Kennedy Pettway". Met Museum. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e Beardsley, John; Arnett, William; Livingston, Jane; Arnett, Paul, eds. (2002). Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts. Tinwood Books. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-9719104-0-9.
  3. ^ Finley, Cheryl; Griffey, Randall R.; Peck, Amelia; Pinckney, Darryl (2018). My Soul Has Grown Deep: Black Art from the American South. New York: Metropolitcan Museum of Art. pp. 83, 87. ISBN 978-1-58839-609-9.
  4. ^ The Quilts of Gee's Bend. Tinwood Books. 2002. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-9653766-4-8.
  5. ^ "Departmental Accessions". Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (145): 45. 2014. JSTOR 48567297.
  6. ^ "Quilts of Gee's Bend". Auburn University. Retrieved March 6, 2021.


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