Kaleidoscope:
Antique Quilts from the collection of Carole and Howard Tanenbaum

Sommaire d'exposition

Quilts are like pages from a vast encyclopedia of textiles, with their abundance of fancy silks and homespun wools speaking across the ages.

The quilts in Kaleidoscope were made in the United States, Canada and England, mostly during the 19th century. They were used as bedding, as lap robes and slumber throws, and as fancy piano covers in Victorian parlours. Most of these quilts are now orphans, their makers unknown, their ancestry obscure. The social messages they carried when they were made – who made them and why, for whom and under what circumstances – have evaporated, leaving behind elaborate kaleidoscopes of colour.

Pour en savoir plus

Carole and Howard Tanenbaum are art collectors, and they acquired these quilts because of how they look – in other words, as art.

“The first quilt we saw that we couldn’t live without was a crazy quilt at an antique dealer’s store in Stratford,” says Carole Tanenbaum. “I love texture and I also love randomness and I was immediately attracted to it. "

“We never deliberately set out to have a quilt collection, but one year we bought one and then the next year we saw three we loved, and pretty soon there we were with a quilt collection.”