By Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Contributor
Deep greens, bright reds, lively pinks and vibrant yellows pulsate, reaching across a bold sea of solid blue. The intense colors and unique geometric shapes filling the walls of Fowler's gallery, contrast the simple, humble and pragmatic lives of their makers.
"A Quiet Spirit: Amish quilts from the collection of Cindy Tietze and Stuart Hodosh," which opened Sunday at the UCLA Fowler Museum, is a selection of 50 Amish quilts dating from the 1880s to the 1940s. "Views of an Amish Community: Photographs by Susan Einstein" accompanies the exhibition which was developed by director Doran H. Ross, director of education Betsy D. Quick and exhibition designer David Mayo.
Mayo explains that because of the quilts' striking visual elements the museum replaced the traditional chronological order with a more visually-based organization. The quilts, filled with vibrant colors and distinct shapes, are arranged in a way that is more eye-pleasing than organized.
The majority of the quilts are composed of solid patterns of rich color.
In fact, it is the vivid colors and abstract designs that distinguish Amish quilting from other quilting traditions.
Photographer Einstein adds, "What makes the Amish quilts distinctive is that they are only allowed to use plain colors. They are not allowed to use prints. Little, tiny, flowery print softens the entire thing. When you use solid colors, real contrasting colors, it gets a really bold graphic look right away."
The combinations of rich colors with interesting patterns create bold works with uniquely modern looks. "The resemblance to contemporary painting is pretty apparent. I find it fascinating," Mayo says.
"These are terrific compositions, pure aesthetics, pure designs. The sense of proportions and color interaction as well as the textural qualities that they add are brilliant," he says.
Brilliance of colors and boldness of shapes seem to contradict the collection's title, "A Quiet Spirit."
Surprisingly, the name, which comes from an Amish hymn, suits the collection in many ways. Mayo says that, when selecting the title, they wanted to be sensitive to the Amish perspective of not drawing attention to themselves. Yet, they also wanted to address the contemporary nature of the quilts. "We wanted to convey the fact that these are very spirited pieces. At the same time, it ís done so quietly by the people," Mayo says.
The lifestyle of the Amish can indeed be considered "quiet." Their community is filled with values like obedience, humility, simplicity, hard work and esteem for tradition. They have created a separation from the world through plain dress, home worship, the use of horses and mules for fieldwork and the rejection of electricity from public utility lines. "It's a very structured life, really orderly and very pragmatic," says Einstein, who lived near an Amish community for several years. "They are a very simple people that are family and community oriented. They keep themselves separate from the rest of our culture."
Living with Amish neighbors, Einstein learned a lot about their community, including the fact that posing for photographs is not allowed. "The reason I took pictures at all was because there were such fascinating things going on around me," Einstein says.
Even though Einstein did take pictures, there were many rules she had to follow. "I had to be extremely restricted as to what I could and couldn't photograph. What I am presenting is in no way a comprehensive overview of what Amish life is like. There are a lot of gaps, but I think it does give some kind of a flavor of it," says Einstein.
Although attending the exhibit may not provide students with a full understanding of the Amish, it will clear up some misconceptions. Einstein says that one of the most common misconceptions of the Amish is people's views about their communal life.
"They are communal in the sense that they have a sense of mutual aid. They will drop everything if one of their friends needs some help, if someone is sick or if their barn burns down, but they have their own independent economies. The families are economically independent," Einstein says. Mayo agrees that viewing the quilts will also help students to learn more about the Amish. "I think that any student would benefit by seeing something that they've only seen in movies," Mayo says.
"They've only seen the Amish community depicted in films as these sort of provincial, buggy-riding group of folks that are on the back roads. And not that they don't drive buggies and don't live in rural areas, but the fact of the matter is they produce art that would be competitive in any highly urban art environment."
EXHIBIT: "A Quiet Spirit" and "Views from an Amish community" will be in the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History through Feb. 16, 1997. For more information call (310) 825-4361.