In 1971, Jonathan Holstein and the Whitney Museum of American Art turned heads with an exhibition of something new that ignited a renaissance. "Abstract Design in American Quilts" is considered the exhibition that elevated quilts to the same level as "high" art by exhibiting 60 quilts in the prestigious art museum and by comparing their graphic qualities to those found in modern abstract art.It's fitting, then, that this ground-breaking Whitney exhibition collection, together with more than 150 Lancaster County, Penn., quilts and about 200 other Midwestern Amish quilts have found a new home at the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The gift of the Holstein Collection to the University of Nebraska Foundation is a joint venture between Jonathan Holstein, collector and author, and Ardis and Robert James, benefactors of a collection of nearly 950 quilts given to the University in 1997 that inspired the formation of the IQSC.
"The new collection is probably one of the most historically important collections that has been out in private hands in the world," said International Quilt Study Center Curator Carolyn Ducey. "The Whitney Collection was the first time when we saw quilts exhibited in a major art museum, and cited as the ground-breaking moment for quilt art, so to have this group is an important coup for us. The Holstein Collection also includes one of the finest, if not the finest, Amish quilt collections in the world."
The collection is valued today at approximately $2.2 million.
It also includes Holstein's Collection of Archival Materials, including quilt-related items and hundreds of documents. These date back to the late 1960s when Holstein first began to collect and study quilts. Together with Gail van der Hoof, Holstein began collecting the Lancaster County and Midwestern Amish quilts in the 1970s, and according to Ducey, Holstein and van der Hoof acquired many of the quilts from the homes of the actual quilt artists, and the two were among the first major collectors. "The donation of this collection is huge for our university," Ducey said. "It now makes our collection probably the most important in the world. We are now up to about 1,650 quilts and we have the academic side, the study as well, and those two things with the collections make us the place to come and see and study quilts."
Lancaster Amish quilts (and, to a lesser extent, Midwestern Amish quilts) occupy unique positions among America's design masterpieces. Distinctive in design, colors and materials, they are among the most "modern," in terms of art history, of any American quilts. The Amish quilts in the Holstein Collection are the last large, comprehensive collection of prime quality and condition classic Lancaster Amish quilts in private hands. Impossible to assemble again, this comprehensive, very well-known and superlative group fills a gap in the International Quilt Study Center's collection, and gives the center a vital resource for both public exhibition and scholarly study.International Quilt Study Center director Patricia Crews acknowledged the importance of the gift, including the Holstein archives."Jonathan Holstein's archives are among the top five archives in the world pertaining to American quilts," she said. "They document the worldwide quilt-making revival of the late 20th century and enhance our resources for the study of American quilt-making traditions." The International Quilt Study Center has been able, in a very short period of time, to amass the most significant quilt collection in the world. The addition of the Holstein Collection to the International Quilt Study Center's permanent collection will provide scholars, students and quilt aficionados an opportunity to study the entire panorama of quilt making in America, represented by supreme examples in depth of all categories and eras of quilt making.
"The addition of this historically important group of quilts to the center's collection should be celebrated not just by everyone who cares about quilts, but also by anyone who cares about American art and design," said Robert Shaw, former curator of the Shelburne Museum.
An exhibition of quilts from the Holstein Collection is slated for February 2005, as a part of the International Quilt Study Center's second biennial symposium, "Collectors and Collecting." The exhibition will be held at Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery.
Additional information available at http://quiltstudy.unl.eduEditors: Print quality digital images available by contacting [email protected]
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