Rachel Carey George

Rachel Carey George  (1908-2011) was the daughter of Mariah Pettway and Reverend William Carey, Minister of Gee’s Bend’s Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, and member of the extended quilting family of Delia Bennett, her mother’s sister. Carey George—who lived until the age of 103—worked until she was 90, tending to farms and doing repair work, all while continuing to make her quilts. Early known examples of Carey George’s quilts date back to the mid 1930s, made from salvaging and inventively reusing fabric scraps and remnants, such as feed sacks, a handy, less-precious material valued for its utility. This recycling practice became the founding ethos for generations of Quiltmakers who have transformed otherwise useless material into marvels of textile art.

Rachel’s work was included in the first major museum exhibition introducing Gee’s Bend to the art world in 2002, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend, originating at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Additional museum venues for this exhibition include the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Orlando Museum of Art, The Walters Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, the Speed Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum and the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Work by Rachel Carey George is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

 

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