Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Revelation! The Quilts of Marie “Big Mama� Roseman May 5 through September 2, 2006 Curated by Martha Watterson and Doug Stock
1. Untitled (White with flowers and face/ “Little Black Man”), n.d. Mixed media 72 x 64 in. The Collection of Margaret and Leroy Jackson
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2. Untitled (Quilt: small pink, brown, and green patches), n.d. Mixed media 57 x 55 in. Collection of Chip Tom 3. Untitled (Quilt with multicolored yarn), n.d. Mixed media 70 x 89 in. The Collection of Margaret and Leroy Jackson 4. Untitled (Duck quilt), n.d. Mixed media 98 x 55 in. The Collection of Margaret and Leroy Jackson
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5. Untitled (Towel work with writing), c.1970s Mixed media 43 x 27 in. Collection of Donald Roseman 6. Untitled (Quilt: blue, brown, and a few pink patches), n.d. Mixed media 57 x 55 in. Collection of Chip Tom
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7. Untitled (Pillow with plastic leaf), c. late 1960s Mixed media 12 x 12 x 3 in. Collection of Donald Roseman
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8. Untitled (Burlap pillow), n.d. Mixed media 12 x 12 x 3 in. Collection of Donald Roseman 9. Untitled (Red with imagery), n.d. Mixed media 60 x 39 1⁄2 in. Collection of Hamza Walker
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10. Untitled (Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer), n.d. Mixed media 73 1⁄2 x 59 3⁄4 x 2 1⁄4 in. Collection of David Kargl and Elizabeth Shinar 11. Untitled (Foot warmer), c. late 1960s Mixed media 23 x 17 x 3 in. Collection of Donald Roseman
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12. Untitled (Patches with face), n.d. Mixed media 71 x 71 in. Collection of the City of Chicago, Public Arts Program 13. Untitled (Quilt: red with text and imagery), n.d Mixed media 93 x 53 in. Collection of Chip Tom
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14. Untitled (Peacock with boots), n.d. Mixed media 63 x 80 in. The Collection of Margaret and Leroy Jackson 15. Untitled (Peacock), n.d. Mixed media 100 x 80 x 1 1â „2 in. Collection of David Kargl and Elizabeth Shinar 16. Untitled (Bird with top hat/ gingham), n.d. Mixed media 94 x 65 in. Collection of the City of Chicago, Public Arts Program
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Revelation! The Quilts of Marie “Big Mama” Roseman Like many self-taught artists, Marie “Big Mama” Roseman
shapes. This artistic choice could have been inspired by her
(1898-2004) did not begin to express herself artistically until
relationship with the organic world through her role as a Native
later in life. Although she had been quilting for years, Roseman
American healer and herbalist, a talent she learned from her
began creating her sculptured, illustrative quilts, pillows and
father and grandfather.
other textiles in the 1970s, when she was in her 70s. Roseman
made hundreds of works in the ensuing 30 years, but due to
to the children in her life. She would even attach small dolls
flooding in her home, only a few survive today.
to her quilts, possibly a reference to her experiences
Roseman’s quilts share some of the features often found in
Roseman created many dolls, which she gave as gifts
delivering children.
African-American improvised quilts. However, the defining
individual artistic features of Roseman’s works are her unique
improvised quilts are being presented by the museum
embroidery, the cryptic appliqué text which she incorporated
community into high art, we should consider how we are
into some of her works, and the three-dimensional sculptural
changing the meaning of them when we hang them vertically
elements she often attached to them. According to her family,
in an exhibition space. In the 1967 story Everyday Use for your
she would use whatever materials were given to her, and it
Grandmama by Alice Walker, a mother and her two grown
is likely what she had available helped determine her final
daughters explore the meanings of memory and narrative in
artistic products.
their grandmother’s quilts.1 One of the daughters, Maggie,
As we present the works of Marie Roseman, and as
By embroidering animals and designs with a thick yarn
sees the quilts as special, treasured, useful objects. Her sister,
onto her quilts and textiles, she created not only illustrations
Dee, sees the quilts as symbols of her own transformation.
but narratives. Roseman often used an appliqué technique to
She believes they should be cared for as artistic objects. The
create words and figures on her works. Additionally, she added
quilts become a touchstone for reflection and identity for both
found materials such as plastic and cloth flowers, lace, and
daughters and their mother.
buttons, which created a sculptural effect.
The contrast between hanging a quilt as a painting and
Roseman sewed both by hand and with a traditional pump-
using a quilt as a bedcover is illustrated in George Bataille’s
pedal sewing machine, a model she preferred to the electric
theory of horizontality.2 Quilts go back and forth into both
machine her family had bought for her. She used her bed as
worlds: the vertical world of high culture (gallery) and the
her quilting frame, and her grandchildren would often join her
horizontal world of humanity (the bedroom).3 When exhibiting
there while she worked.
quilts in the museum context, we should explore meanings
behind both uses, and how the presentation of them shifts our
Born in Tippo, Mississippi, Roseman was of African Amer-
ican, European and Native American ancestry. While her family
interpretation and understanding of them.
history and personal background do not exclusively explain
her artistic motivations, they do illuminate her diverse cultural
and bold body of work by Marie Roseman. With her unique
experiences and some of the influences her personal life may
and original embroidery and three-dimensional designs and
have had on her creative process.
figures, Roseman transcends the utility of improvised quilting
into the artistic. Her works are a true revelation.
While still in Mississippi, Marie married Jessie Roseman,
This exhibition gives us a glimpse into the idiosyncratic
and they had three sons and one daughter. She and Jessie
moved to Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1947. At home, she would
this exhibition.
Special thanks to all who assisted and supported
quilt through the night, telling her extended family that she could watch and guard the house while they were sleeping.
Roseman left her house infrequently. After the 1950s, she
Martha Watterson
rarely ventured beyond her home environment to attend church or to go out. Her own family, friends, garden, and TV would have most likely been her main influences. She created her own world in her home, and during this time created huge numbers of quilts and textiles.
Kathryn Hixson, The Topologies of Anne Wilson’s Topologies, (Boston: UMass Art Gallery, 2003), p. 35-41. In her essay, Hixson discusses Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss’ interpretation of George Bataille’s theory or horizontality.
2
Her textile work appears to have been influenced by
natural elements, with frequent references to flowers and vine
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Alice Walker, “Everyday Use,” in In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women (New York: Harvest Book, Harcourt, Inc., 1967), p. 47-59.
1
756 N. Milwaukee Ave. Chicago, Illinois 60622
Ibid.
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