Materials from Patchwork Bedspread c. 1936

Frances Lichten’s *Materials from Patchwork Bedspread* is like a little garden of fabric swatches, carefully arranged and presented as a collection. I can imagine Frances, surrounded by scraps of cloth, maybe spread across a sunny table, her mind swimming with the stories these fabrics hold. There’s something so intimate about textiles, isn't there? Each swatch has a history, a life lived as part of something bigger, a bedspread! I wonder what it was like? Maybe it was a beloved family heirloom, patched and mended over generations? I’m drawn to the earthy palette – browns and creams, punctuated by little pops of red and green. The floral patterns are sweet, almost naive, but they’re grounded by the more geometric designs. And look at that simple stitch on the plain square, a single line with a little green leaf. In painting, we have the idea of the "all-over" composition, where every part of the canvas is equally important. Lichten does that here. Every swatch is given the same attention, elevating the humble scrap to a thing of beauty and interest.