Rural American art graces embassy walls in India

Brightly coloured traditional quilts made by rural women in the United States have found a place on the walls of embassies in India as part of efforts by the American country to foster cultural dialogue through arts.

Prints of the quilts, made mostly by artists who are descendants of former slaves, are part of the 17 works of art worth over Rs25 lakh, donated to US embassies in New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai by a non-profit body – the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE).

"I was told about my work being installed in India. That makes me really proud. I'd love to go to India someday, but I don’t know a lot about India," Louisiana Bendolph, an artist from the Gee's Bend Quilt Collective in Alabama, told PTI in an email interview. 

Bendolph is one of the four artists from Gee's Bend whose work is displayed in the country. Art critics worldwide have compared the quilts from the collective to works of renowned artists such as Henri Matisse and Paul Klee.

The artist had previously worked with women from the Kutch Desert in 2005 during a workshop in Vancouver.

".... I felt a strong connection with those women who were travelling well outside their hometown to teach people about India and about embroidery techniques. We actually spent some time working on a piece of art together," says Bendolph.

Apart from Bendolph and her fellow quilt artists, another American artist Lynda Benglis was commissioned by FAPE in 2007 to create two site-specific installations for the new US consulate in Mumbai.