The International Quilt Museum will host a guest lecture with renowned quilter Yvonne Wells and co-author Stacy I. Morgan at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 19 in the museum. The two are visiting as part of a book tour for "The Story Quilts of Yvonne Wells."
Wells is a contemporary artist and lifelong educator from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Among other honors, she is a 2024 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship and a 2019 Governor’s Arts Award from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Wells has represented Alabama in exhibitions in Vence, France, and Pietrasanta, Italy. Her art is in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the High Museum of Art, the International Quilt Museum and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.
"The Story Quilts of Yvonne Wells" is an introduction and definitive guide to the self-taught quilter whose expansive body of work serves as a testament to the sweeping tides of American life and Wells’ significance as a major figure within the folk art and art world writ large.
Beginning when she was nearly 40 years old and without formal training, Wells created her first quilt for practical use but was soon hand stitching appliqué figures into bold, original designs that unleashed her voice as a storyteller.
Incorporating a wide variety of symbolic materials and unconventional objects — “anything I can stick a needle in” — Wells’ vivid story quilts reveal a fearless and encyclopedic vision ranging from the intimately autobiographical to iconic scenes from African American history, the Bible, Southern culture and contemporary headlines.
The result of years of close collaboration between Morgan and Wells herself, "The Story Quilts of Yvonne Wells" is illustrated with more than 100 quilts accompanied by narratives about each, told in the artist's own words, and interspersed with in-depth essays documenting Wells’ unique artistic practice and creative journey during her five-decade art career.
