© Mary Lee Bendolph / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York
Currently not on view
To Honor Mr. Dial,
2005
Mary Lee Bendolph, born 1935, active Boykin, AL
Printed by Paulson Fontaine Press, Berkeley, CA
Printed by Paulson Fontaine Press, Berkeley, CA
2019-92
Bendolph is a member of the Gee’s Bend quilters, a tightly knit multigenerational group of women sewers from a rural African American community in Alabama, many of whom trace their descent to former slaves from the nearby Pettway plantation. The first print made by Bendolph, To Honor Mr. Dial recalls the “housetop” quilting pattern, in which scraps of different fabrics are pieced at right-angles around a central shape, creating a kaleidoscopic arrangement of colors. The work pays tribute to Bendolph’s friend, the self-taught artist Thornton Dial. Bendolph and Dial supported each other’s interest in salvaged materials: Dial sent old clothes to Bendolph, who would send back zippers, belt loops, and other parts of clothing that could not be used in quilting; Dial incorporated these into his assemblage works.
Information
Title
To Honor Mr. Dial
Dates
2005
Maker
Medium
Color soft-ground etching with aquatint and spitbite aquatint
Dimensions
plate: 116.1 × 70.4 cm (45 11/16 × 27 11/16 in.)
sheet: 140.6 × 90.8 cm (55 3/8 × 35 3/4 in.)
frame: 147.6 × 97.5 × 6.7 cm (58 1/8 × 38 3/8 × 2 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, gift of the PECO Foundation
Object Number
2019-92
Place Made
North America, United States, California, Berkeley
Signatures
Signed in graphite lower right: Mary Lee Bendolph 2005
Inscription
In graphite, lower left: 50/50
In graphite, lower center: To Honor Mr. Dial
Culture
Techniques
Subject
