Materials from Patchwork Bedspread c. 1936

This page of quilt fabrics by Frances Lichten is like a painter’s palette, a collection of favorite shapes and patterns that might come together in endless combinations. I love that Lichten gathered them together as a study, a record of her process, and of the world around her. She’s thinking about the possibilities of a domestic art, something warm and useful, stitched together from the scraps of daily life. Each little rectangle contains its own world: florals, geometrics, tiny trees, paisleys. Imagine Lichten hunting through her studio, collecting these patterns. How did she choose them? Did she arrange and rearrange them, searching for the perfect combination of colors and textures, just like a painter mixes colors on a canvas? I can see echoes of all kinds of painters here - from Henri Matisse to the quilters of Gee’s Bend. Artists are always finding inspiration in the world around them, transmuting what they find into something new, and something deeply personal.