Loretta Pettway

American, 1942

Pettway descends from generations of accomplished quilt makers in Boykin, Alabama, also known as Gee’s Bend. Her quilt-making style marries a flair for improvisation to traditional construction techniques that emphasize rectangles and squares. Her small compositions of cloth build to create complicated compositions that occasionally contain humorous touches and autobiographical references. Her quilts have been featured in museum and gallery exhibitions, including The Quilts of Gee’s Bend and Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt. Pettway was a featured artist in the traveling exhibition Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee’s Bend Quilts, and Beyond. Her work is included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the U.S. Department of State, and the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies. The artist is represented by the Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, Washington.