Masterful Quilts by Caryl Bryer Fallert

By Alidė Kohlhaas

The title of the current exhibit in the main gallery of the Burlington Art Centre is most aptly named. It is a quilt show unlike any other ever shown here. The quilts that the American quilt artist Caryl Bryer Fallert creates have no resemblance to what most people think of as quilts, namely the wonderful pieces of traditional designs—and these days sometimes not so traditional—that are hand-quilted by the Mennonite women in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, or south of the border in various rural settings. Bryer Fallert's quilts are paintings in cloth.

Her Rhododendron, 1998, (left)a detailed depiction of a rhododendron bloom that measures 64" by 51", is intricately reproduced in hand dyed pure cotton, contains dyed appliques, and has been carefully and delicately quilted by machine. Yes, machine. Bryer Fallert has dared to break the rule of making quilts by hand-stitching, and she has been rewarded for it.

In 1989 her Corona II: Solar Eclipse won Best of Show at one of the quilt world's most highly respected shows despite having been entirely pieced and quilted by machine. In 1999, this same quilt was named one of the best 100 quilts in the USA in the 20th century. The jury considered 1,720 quilts for this honour, but only seven appeared on more than half the nomination lists and Corona II: Solar Eclipse was one of these.

Nothing really prepares one for the impact of her work. Whether they are abstract,  semi-abstract, or representational, all of her quilts are created with great emphasis on detail. Her patchwork is amazing, considering that the shapes are not the usual rectangles set in various formations, but irregular shapes that must be fitted into the quilt work with great care. She uses not only cotton, but also silk and various metallic nylon fabrics, her threads are normal cottons, but also metallic to give special effects. Her Midnight Fantasy, 1999 (right) is one of several in a series of true abstracts.

One of her Feather studies in the show sold for $11,000 (US). It is one of several of these semi-abstract studies in this exhibit. Bryer Fallert likes to create a series on a theme. While they are similar, not one of the works is the same. Her Feather Study # 9, 1999, (shown at left) has a far more vibrant look than that of #14, which also has a darker background. At $20,000 (US) New Dawn 2000, which measures 63" by 78", is the most expensive piece in this exhibit. It shows a Phoenix rising out of vibrant flames, a variation on the mythological phoenix that burned itself in a funeral pyre after living several centuries, and then rose renewed from the ashes to begin the cycle again. The price may seem exorbitant, but anyone who has ever quilted, will soon realize that this immense work is well priced for the amount of work that has gone into it.

Me and My 404 Blues, 1987 has a photograph of herself dyed on squares patched into the quilt. Farewell to Silverbird, 1997 pays homage to her departure from her 28-year-long career as a stewardess. It contains an image of our globe with North and part of South America visible, encircled in part by small planes and rising from it in the front, two cranes, a silver one toward west and a coloured one toward the east.

Her Reflections series contains fabric on which fibre-reactive dyes are sprayed over  real leaves to create a pattern of the leaves in a rainbow pattern floating on a dark background. There are tucks on these quilts that have one side of a different colour than the other. One can go on and on in describing the detail of the various works, but there is no need. Suffice it to say that these quilts exceed anything one usually expects of them, and they make art quilts by such artists as the late Joyce Wieland seem poor cousins, indeed.

Copyright © 2001-8 CamKohl Arts Productions

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