Bernice Steinbaum Gallery - GEE’S BEND QUILT AUCTION

GEE'S BEND QUILT AUCTION
TO BENEFIT HAITI

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

7pm – 9:30pm
Valet parking available
AUCTION BEGINS AT 8:30pm

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, President Obama asked Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to raise funds for immediate, high-impact relief and long-term recovery efforts to help those who are most in need of assistance.

On March 13th, The Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, in association with The Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance, will auction 10 quilts from Gee's Bend to benefit the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund with 100% of the proceeds going directly to relief efforts. Reserve prices range from $10,000 - $30,000. Celebrity Judge Karen Mills-Francis will serve as auctioneer for the event.

"The women of Gee's Bend make quilts that are eye-dazzlingly beautiful. How moving that these women who are descendants of slaves offer their work for auction to help the Haitian people who are suffering from the after effects of the earthquake. How appropriate for this auction to take place in an art gallery; the quilts of Gee's Bend prove definitively that the quilt is off the bed and on the wall," says Bernice Steinbaum.

Nestled into a curve in the Alabama River southwest of Selma, Alabama, the women of the town Gee's Bend developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style with a geometric simplicity. The New York Times called the quilts "some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced." In 2002, an exhibition of 70 quilt masterpieces from the Bend, premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and traveled to more than a dozen major museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Please join us for this charitable event.

See quilts below!

Annie Pettway Grace, 2010 Cotton 77 x 78 in.