I caught a documentary on Herb and Dorothy Vogel, the proletarian art collectors, on the weekend and was intrigued by the type of art they collected. They focussed on conceptual art and minimalist art. It was the minimalist art that intrigued me. I don't particularly like minimalist art because I usually find it cold, but I also don't understand it very well either. I started reading more about it. And I started thinking. You know that spells trouble, eh?What might a minimalist quilt look like?
I considered different quilt styles. Wholecloth? Although the top is not pieced, the quilting often has trapunto and is usually pretty elaborate so no, probably not whole cloth, unless it was done differently. Amish? Simple style, yes, but still more elaborate than minimalist art. Gee's Bend/Improv? No, don't think so.
There's Alissa Haight Carlton's book, Modern Minimal, for good inspiration. There's also Lindsay Stead's quilts. Yum! I also found a great Pinterest board of inspiration.
What's über minimalist though? Something that's basic to art? What's a fundamental part of art and design? A line? Yes, let's go with a line.
Using the rule of thirds in design, I put in a 1" black strip of fabric in a 23" by 44" piece of white (Kona Snow). I want this piece to be one of the quilts that I rotate in our kitchen so it will be about the same size as Happy Canada Day, Eh! and Purplelicious. I chose this rough size to account for shrinkage from the quilting and trimming.
There. That's pretty minimalist, right?
But wait, it's not a quilt yet. What might minimalist quilting look like? Is it barely quilted or just simply quilted? Is it quilted at all? Thoughts?
Find out how my challenge turned out on Friday. Oh, and I'm also keeping track of the time and materials spent on this to do another Value and Worth exercise. :)
